The Band is with Me
by corsetobsession
Summary: AU. As a favor to an old friend, Rinoa is hired to photograph the debut album of the up and coming rock group, Absolute Lore. There she meets the quiet and enigmatic drummer named Squall, and Rinoa quickly learns that musicians are truly the guiltiest of all guilty pleasures.
1. Chapter 1

**The Band is with Me**

AU. As a favor to an old friend, Rinoa is hired to photograph the debut album of the up and coming rock group, Absolute Lore. There she meets the quiet and enigmatic drummer named Squall, and Rinoa quickly learns that musicians are truly the guiltiest of all guilty pleasures.

* * *

**A/N: Just so you know, rather than the cities being in different countries like in the game, I made them fairly close to each other. For example (since I am US-based) Galbadia would be considered similar to a large city like Los Angeles/Hollywood, Balamb would be a beach city like Santa Monica or Ventura or Venice, Esthar would be like New York, Timber like Boston, etc.**

* * *

"We could just use one of Zell's paintings for the cover."

"And perhaps he could even come up with a background to put the song lyrics on," Quistis offered, nodding to herself in agreement with Irvine's previous statement. "I think he'd get a kick out of it, graphic design is definitely his other talent."

Zell started scrolling through the photo gallery on his phone. "What kind of look are we going for? Something minimalistic, something dark, abstract maybe?" He hadn't painted in nearly a year—he had been too busy with the increase of clients at his gym and his busier-by-the-day schedule with the band—but he still had quite the collection of his art on hand.

Selphie rolled her eyes as she listened to the band members discuss their album design. "You are all idiots," she said. "_No one_ buys CD's anymore, no one's going to look at the little pamphlet to look up the lyrics. They'll just look it up online."

"Ouch," winced Zell, setting his phone down onto the table. "So ruthless."

"It's the truth," Selphie argued. "You guys have a band page on social media, use _that. _Your followers are going to look more at your social media page than they are at a CD case because they'll be able to download the music off your web page. You guys should really know this."

Zell looked over to Squall who was still leaning back in his chair with his boots atop the table. "What do you think?"

"She does have a point," he mused, absently twirling a drum stick between his fingers. "When was the last time any of you bought a CD?"

The room fell silent as they all actually tried to think of the last CD they had bought. "Ok, point made," Irvine finally said. He stretched his arms overhead and groaned at the sweet pop that sounded from his shoulders. "So then," he said to Selphie. "What do you suggest we do?"

"Well, your web page needs some work and I think Zell would be able to whip up something aesthetically pleasing. However, I think that more focus should be on your social media page, after all, _everyone _is on it now and you'll be able to see more of your followers and their feedback. You guys are starting to get more of a following now, you need to start paying more attention." Selphie pulled out her laptop and quickly typed in the link. "Look at this comment," she said, tapping a nail delicately on the screen.

_Music sounds great, can't wait to hear more! Let's see some band pictures!_

Selphie turned to Irvine and proudly smiled. "The only pictures you have of you guys are from that back yard gig you did at Nida's party a few months ago."

"I thought we had a lot of great pictures from that night," Quistis commented.

"Yeah, from _cell phones._ No matter what some people think, cell phone cameras are not _real_ cameras. As a band that is getting its name out there you need _professional_ photographs." Selphie scrolled through the photographs in question. Even though the quality of cell phone cameras had most definitely improved over the last several years, no amount of filters or cropping or tilt shift could ever amount to the talent of a true photographer.

She came across what could have been a great photograph of Irvine possessively cradling his mic-stand as he released a powerful and earth shattering scream…but the would be cell phone photographer decided to take the shot with the halo light right behind Irvine, causing a harsh shadow to be cast over his entire face. The photograph had potential, but a great photographer would have known where to stand, where to have taken the shot from, would have known how to utilize all of the light fixtures that were in place.

"Alright, well do you have a photographer in mind?" Zell asked. "We're kind of on a budget." They weren't exactly famous, known of, yes, but not famous. They did have a following that consisted of more than just friends and friends of friends and family members. So far only two songs of theirs had made it onto the local hard rock station. They had become very well known to all the hot venues of Galbadia and the neighboring cities. Despite all that, not all of their gigs were paid shows. Most of the time they got paid in free beer or two free drinks each at the bar, and of course some exposure.

"Actually…" Selphie clicked over to her personal social media page and scrolled through her newsfeed. "I actually just saw a post of an old friend saying that she was moving back here to Deling and she is _phenomenal_." She ran her tongue over her teeth as she tried to find the post. "Ah! There it is!"

_Rinoa Heartilly_

_Yesterday at 8:15 a.m._

**_Get ready Deling, I will be inside you soon ;)_**

Accompanying the post was a quick cell phone picture of a boarding pass with the large and bold words of **Deling Airport** printed across the top along with Rinoa's name and seat number. Beneath the picture were a few comments from her friends that exclaimed how much they would miss her and that they wished her safe travels.

"This is her personal page," Selphie said. Rinoa clearly kept her personal page very private. Her profile picture was a photograph of her, shot from behind, laying on her belly as she aimed her camera towards a lighthouse in the distance. The only photos she posted were linked from her photography page and were only of her subjects in question, hardly any were candid shots of herself. Even her profile page simply stated:

**Rinoa Heartilly**

**March 3****rd****, 25 years old**

**Photographer (Fashion, conceptual, portrait, interior/real estate, documentary)**

Selphie moved the little arrow and filtered through Rinoa's page to find the link she wanted. "Here's the page where she has all of her photography. Take a look!"

Quistis and Zell scooted Selphie out of the way while they perused this girl's social media page. Squall lowered his feet from the table and strode to the fridge to grab a water bottle before he made his way over to the laptop.

"Pretty impressive," Zell admitted, his eyes lingering on the image of a woman with satiny ebony skin holding a stark white steer head skull in front of her nude body. "The contrast of the colors," he murmured. "It's beautiful."

Quistis scrolled to the next photo, an image of a young girl dressed as a fairy happily twirling and dancing in a field while thunder clouds loomed overhead. "And she can capture action," she said, her eyes traveling over the movements of the little girl's dress and fabric wings. "She could even photograph a show of ours."

"Not bad," Squall said as he looked at the next photo that displayed the black and white silhouette of a pregnant woman wading thigh deep in a tide pool. "Her usage of lighting is extraordinary."

"How do you know this girl?" Irvine asked. The next few photographs were of the inside of some sort of art gallery. They included shots of portraits, paintings, artifacts, and people looking at said items.

"She and I went to the Deling campus of the Estharian College of the Arts together," Selphie explained. "She went for photography and I went for sculpting. We had a few classes together, mostly just art theory." Selphie blushed and sheepishly tucked a strand of golden brown hair behind her ear. "I've actually modeled for her a few times, actually…"

"I'll say you have!" Zell exclaimed with his blue eyes nearly popping out of their sockets.

The sudden outburst forced Selphie to snap her head towards the computer screen, her jaw dropping and the color draining from her face as she saw the new image that was displayed. It was from one of her modeling sessions with Rinoa where Rinoa had said that she wanted to experiment with some new bath bombs. It was shot from a downward angle—Selphie remembered how Rinoa strategically balanced herself with one foot of the top of the toilet and the other foot on a stepstool—and left very little to the imagination. The bath bomb turned the bath water into swirls of glittering pinks and purples with little touches of blue, very reminiscent of a stargazed galaxy. Selphie lay beneath the water, one leg extended to rest upon the edge of the clawed-foot tub, the other bent so all that was seen was a naked knee. Her torso was exposed above the water level, her arms covering her breasts while she playfully nibbled on one finger and looked directly up into the camera.

The caption beneath the sultry photo read: _Bath bombs + naked lady = best photoshoot EVER!_

"Selphie!" Quistis cried, her mouth open in a large grin. "Look at those 'come fuck me now' eyes! I never knew you had it in you!" She gave Selphie a light-hearted nudge to the shoulder. "You little vixen you!"

Irvine simply blinked, his jaw clenched tightly as he stared at the beautiful photograph of the petite minx beside him. "How come I have never seen this till now?" he demanded. "E-mail her, tell her I want ten copies."

"Irvine!" Selphie squealed.

"One life-sized, preferably," he said as he snaked an arm around Selphie's waist and gnawed noisily at her chin. "I'm going to hang it on the ceiling right above my bed," he told her. "That way when you ride me I can have two of you looking at me."

Selphie laughed and shoved him aside. "I'll e-mail her," she said. "But I can't promise anything. I haven't seen her in over three years. I don't even know why she's moved back, I thought she had a pretty decent job in Timber." She clicked onto the link that opened up a new message.

_S.T: Heeeeeeeey girl! I saw that you're back in Deling? What a coincidence because I am also in Deling! Give me a call, we must catch up! Xoxoxoxoxox Selphie_

Selphie attached her new cell phone number to the bottom of the message. "I'll see if I can meet up with her sometime and I'll let her know that you guys are interested in hiring her for a small photoshoot."

"Sounds good," said Zell. "Let's get lunch. Some place with napkins so we can shove them up Irvine's nose to stop that nose bleed from Selphie's photo."

* * *

They went to the nearest diner and ordered their usual of an extra-large supreme pizza and refillable jug of beer. Selphie was on her second slice when she felt her phone vibrate in her pocket. "Hang on," she said, setting the phone flat onto the table. "Oh! She's responded!"

_R.H: OHMYGOD! HOW ARE YOU?! I just got back in yesterday =) _

_S.T: How was Timber?_

_R.H: It was AMAZING! But I really missed being home. Plus a friend of mine is opening up his own studio soon and is going to need a few new photographers =)_

_S.T: Nice! When is that?_

_R.H: Not for another month. I'm taking a much needed vacation! Plus I need to get settled into my new place, get new furniture, blah blah etc. How have you been?! It's been too long!_

_S.T: It really has! I've been good, I'm the assistant to this woman who runs her own pottery class. Got myself a rock star boyfriend, you know, no big deal =P_

_R.H: Ooh la la! Do tell =)_

The two began an even longer conversation about how Selphie had met Irvine and the rest of the band, how she and Irvine had been together for a little over a year, and how much Irvine loved the infamous bathtub photograph.

_R.H: Can't blame him, that picture is AWESOME! Though I'm sure he'd want to see the ones that I didn't post._

_S.T: Well yeah those are a tad more risqué!_

Irvine peeked over Selphie's shoulder to see her phone's screen. "There were _more?_" he balked.

Selphie shot him a look. "Oh please, what photographer takes _one_ photo?"

"I need to meet this woman," Irvine stated. "I need to see her entire portfolio. I don't care if we have to pay her double!"

Quistis nearly choked on her beer with laughter. "You would!"

_S.T: Hey, what are you doing right now?_

_R.H: Unpacking. Needing a break. What are YOU doing? =D_

_S.T: I am plotting to steal you from unpacking._

_R.H: Yay!_

Selphie finished her slice and tapped Irvine on the shoulder. "I'm gonna go meet up with her," she said with her mouth full. As she swallowed she reached for her wallet.

Irvine took hold of her hand and gave her palm a gentle kiss. "Don't worry babe," he said with his charming smile. "I got you. We're gonna head back to Zell's after."

Quistis took a look at the skinny gold watch around her wrist. "Not me," she said. "I told Faith that I'd cover her shift tonight. I need to shower and change real quick." She reached into her purse and grabbed out her share of the bill. "See you guys at the next practice, keep me updated with Selphie's friend." She waved her fingers at the group and exited.

Selphie waved off Quistis and looked back at the phone that continued buzzing. "Rinoa just texted me directions to her apartment." She swiped the screen slowly as she read through the message. "Nice! It's actually not that far from here." She stood from her seat and leaned in to give Irvine a kiss. "I'll catch up with you later?"

He nodded and affectionately stroked her waist. "You're gonna walk?"

"Yeah, it's on 6th Avenue," she told him, pointing in the general direction. "You know, across from the convenient store. Fifteen minute walk, tops."

Irvine shrugged as he mentally walked himself to the store in question. "Alright," he said. "Let me know when you get there."

* * *

Selphie walked into the apartment complex and looked for the signs that announced the West Lot. She glanced down at the directions on her phone. _In the West Lot. Fourth building on the right hand side #24B_. It was a nice complex, quiet and clean despite being right off of a main road. Selphie found the staircase that led to an apartment unit with its door wide open and music blaring through. As she made her way up the stairs Selphie placed the music as a classic ACDC song. She had definitely found Rinoa's apartment. Selphie grinned as she remembered Rinoa always blasting 1980's metal in her dorm room.

Approaching the door, Selphie gently knocked on the open door. "Rinoa? It's Selphie!"

"Selphie!" Rinoa's face popped up from behind a stack of cardboard boxes, her long black hair piled up on the top of her head in a ridiculously messy bun. She smiled brightly as she stood to her feet and made a mad dash for the other girl.

The two crashed into each other with tight hugs and gales of laughter. "You want a beer?" Rinoa turned towards the kitchen and grabbed two bottles from the fridge. She nicked off the top with her key ring and handed the bottle to Selphie. "Holy shit it has been like…what, three years?"

"Something like that!" Selphie took a swig and sat down on the cream colored carpet of the living room. "Is this seriously all that you brought from Timber?" she asked, her eyes wide as she counted four cardboard boxes, one large and beat up duffle bag, and three suitcases.

Rinoa sat down cross-legged and leaned against the wall. "Well, all the furniture at my old apartment mostly belonged to my roommate," she said. "Caraway's giving me some of the old furniture from the house."

Selphie winced at Rinoa's use of her father's last name. For as long as the two had known each other, there was always some sort of tension between Rinoa and her father. Selphie never knew the _exact_ reason, knew only that it had started while Rinoa was still in high school. She even went as far as to legally change her name from Caraway to Heartilly, her mother's maiden name, when she turned eighteen. "You and your dad still…?" She made a scowl and gestured with her hand.

Rinoa shrugged and drank her beer. "Not really, we've resolved most of our issues. I'm just so used to calling him Caraway that calling him "Dad" would just seem…odd. When he picked me up from the airport yesterday he said something stupid and I was like "Yeah, whatever, _Dad,_" and he looked at me like I was insane." A giggle bubbled from her lips and she arched a brow. "It was just so foreign."

"Do you even have a bed?"

"Yeah, Caraway set it up for me last night. He's coming by tomorrow with the couches and my old dresser. Basically, I'm getting my old childhood bedroom furniture and the furniture from the den."

Selphie smiled. "It's something!"

Rinoa nodded and polished off her beer. She stood to her feet and adjusted her jean shorts that had ridden up from her sitting position. "You want another?" When Selphie accepted Rinoa went back into the kitchen. "Tell me more about this hot rock star boyfriend of yours!" she said when she returned with two more bottles.

"Ugh, Rinoa he is just so…" Selphie threw her head back as she searched for the words. "God I am just so head over heels for him! He makes me laugh and when he holds me I seriously just feel safe and warm. He's got these eyes that are just a spectacular color of blue and lips that are just to _die_ for and long, gorgeous, stupidly sexy hair that I just can't stop pulling!" Selphie reached for her phone and showed Rinoa her wallpaper. It was her and Irvine at the amusement park a few weeks prior. Irvine had been pretending that he was a zombie and was thus gnawing on Selphie's cheek while she tried not to drop her cotton candy.

"Good god you guys are disgustingly adorable," Rinoa said.

"Yeah, we get that a lot," Selphie giggled as she tucked away her phone. "What about you? Did you have anyone special in Timber?"

Rinoa shook her head. "Nah, I was seeing this one guy for a little while about a year ago when I was working a job in Esthar but…" She shrugged. "You know how it is. Shit happens." Rinoa groaned and slithered down the wall so that she lay flat on her back. "Even though I am so excited to have a vacation a month seems like way too long to not be working! I feel like after a week I'll already be going stir crazy with boredom."

Selphie's ears perked up and she crawled over to where Rinoa's head rested on the floor. "Oh really? Well…if you're up to it, I have a proposition for you?"

Rinoa turned her face toward Selphie and narrowed her eyes in intrigue. "Is that so? I love propositions. Tell me."

"Irvine's band, Absolute Lore, is in desperate need of classy, professionally done band photos. Seriously, like the only photos they have on their page are cell phone pictures from a house party a while ago."

"Oh, ew."

"Yeah, my thoughts exactly. And…I actually already showed them your work and they are just in awe. So, if you're interested they would like to hire you."

Rinoa sat up, her teeth gently biting down on her bottom lip as she thought. A thousand different shoot ideas raced through her mind. There were so many different options and themes that she could play around with. "What kind of music do they play?"

"Rock. Not quite heavy metal but heavier than some of the bands that play on the radio."

"They any good?"

Selphie nodded with so much enthusiasm that her hair was a mere blur from the shaking. "_Yes._ Seriously, when they play you are still feeling it the night after—just like when you have really superb sex and your thighs are still burning and quaking."

"Are they hot?"

"Uh, hello! They are all _gorgeous,_" Selphie sang, holding up her phone and pointing to the screen as evidence. "Irvine—who you've already seen is obviously the most handsome man ever carved out of delicious hunky man meat—is the singer but also does back up guitar. Quistis, this drop dead gorgeous tall blonde with legs that you could just _climb_, is the bassist. Zell, the lead guitarist, is a professional boxing instructor—nuff said. And the drummer Squall has these blue eyes that are so damn sharp they could just cut through steel like butter."

Rinoa grinned as she listened to the other girl describe the members of this band she wanted her to photograph. The offer was definitely intriguing. "You know what, I'll do it," Rinoa said. "Sounds like fun! Just give me a few days to get settled in and we'll schedule like a meet and greet so we can all decide what kind of photoshoot they want and a price."

Selphie's eyes grew wide and sparkly as she tried to contain the squeal of excitement that threatened to burst through her mouth. "Really? Ohmygod yay I am so excited that you said yes! I can't wait to tell them!"

* * *

Irvine's shoulders slumped as Zell once again shot a bullet through Irvine's pixelated head. "Goddammit," he muttered, his lips scowling as he watched his character drop down to his knees before dramatically collapsing into himself on the ground. "Don't do it, don't do it Zell—you fucker!" His face twisted into annoyance even further when Zell's character ran up to Irvine's fallen character and tea-bagged him.

Zell gave a loud and exaggerated laugh of triumph as he bounced on the couch. "I am undefeated!"

Irvine groaned and handed the controller to Squall who was sitting on the couch's arm. "Avenge me, my brother." Squall silently took hold of the controller and raced after Zell, his thumbs skillfully and quickly maneuvering the controller's buttons.

Irvine's phone beeped and he dug it out of his jeans. As he tapped into his messages he heard Zell scream, "Are you fucking kidding me? Where the fuck did you just come from? Goddammit—fuck you Squall."

Irvine glanced up in time to see the replay of Zell's character get stabbed in the ribs. "That's what you get for being a douche," chirped Irvine. "I knew you would avenge my death with honor," he said to Squall, grinning as he watched Squall continue to play with an emotionless expression plastered on his face, in complete gaming mode. Irvine's attention went back to his phone and he smiled when he saw that it was a picture message from Selphie.

_S.T: Guess who got you bitches a photographer!_

The picture was a slightly blurry snapshot of Selphie and a dark-haired girl. Selphie had one arm around the girl's shoulders, pulling her close so that their cheeks touched. Selphie smiled brightly while the other girl had her lips pursed as if she were sending kisses.

He let out an amused grunt and held the phone out for them to see. "She's in," Irvine said. "Absolute Lore is about to have their first official photo shoot."

Zell glanced over and gave a quick nod after reading Selphie's message. "Nice," he said. He tilted his head in appreciation as he added a low whistle. "Goddamn…She'll be very nice to look at too."

Squall finally moved from his statuesque pose of balancing on the couch's arm to look at the photo on Irvine's phone. His brow lifted slightly at the sight of the pretty girl with rich black hair and pouty lips. "Yep," he agreed. "She definitely will be."


	2. Chapter 2

Rinoa picked up her latest model of the Canon Rebel. It wasn't _the_ latest model, only about a year or two old, but she absolutely adored it. Even though technology was constantly changing and models were released every year, she couldn't bring herself to part with this particular one. The lenses, however, she had a plethora of, despite how much her eyes bulged and lips thinned out at the price. She also had a small collection of neck straps. She opened up the plastic bag that held her collection. She had blue ones, a black one with skulls on it, a zebra printed one, a pink Hello Kitty one, a simple brown leather one, and even one that looked like snake skin.

"Hmm…" she tapped a nail to her lips as she tried to decide which one to wear today. She was meeting with Selphie and the band today and she thought she should bring her camera in the hopes that they would be willing to do just a few test shots. Rinoa glanced out the window. It was just after nine, the sun was shining, the sky was perfectly clear of clouds…the lighting was phenomenal and she thought it a sin to waste it.

She opted for the leather one, deciding that sometimes simplicity was best. Knowing that it would be getting warmer throughout the day, she changed into a long, flowy, light blue spaghetti strap tunic and black leggings that stopped just mid-calf. Her stomach rumbled and she placed a hand over her belly. "Yes, yes I know," she muttered to herself. "You'll be fed very soon, I promise." She settled her camera into its proper bag, slid her wallet and phone into one of the pockets, slipped on some simple black flats, grabbed her keys, and she was out the door.

Rinoa had suggested that they all meet up at the diner Selphie had said that she had walked from the other day, since it was only a fifteen minute walk. Rinoa's car was still in transit by way of an eighteen-wheeler and wouldn't arrive into town for at least another two days. So, she asked the favor that they arrange a meeting within walking distance. Selphie had offered to give Rinoa a ride, but she declined and said that she enjoyed walking.

With one finger she pushed her sunglasses back up the bridge of her nose. It was a pretty calm Saturday morning in Deling, only a few people were out this early running their errands or grocery shopping. Spring was in the air, and the warm April sunshine welcomed Rinoa home with promises of laying out poolside with a fruity cocktail.

Even though she had only been home for three days, she had to admit that she was glad to be back in her home town. Deling was a smaller northern part of Galbadia, with Galbadia being the main city on this end of the world. Deling itself had a very active night life, but it was geared mostly towards adults. When Rinoa was a teenager she spent many nights driving with her friends into the heart of Galbadia and just walking into one of the venues no matter what band was playing. Some were good, some were decent, and some were just god awful. And now, she was about to be hired to photograph a band that was on the local hard rock station's, FFVIII, 'Top 5 Bands to Look Out For' list. The other night she had gone onto their web page and listened to a few of their songs. Selphie was right, they were good. Rinoa couldn't wait to see them live. However, like Selphie had previously mentioned, there were no decent photographs of the band itself. There were a few that had potential, but whoever had done the editing had made the photographs too small and had resulted in making the pictures look grainy and pixelated.

Across the street from her was a bridal shop and she watched a young woman giggling and excitedly fidgeting with her hands as she was surrounded by three women who looked her age and an older woman that Rinoa assumed was the mother. Someone was clearly wedding dress shopping. It made Rinoa wonder if she would ever attempt at photographing a wedding. After a few steps she argued with herself that she would very much rather shoot a boudoir set with the bride-to-be than an entire event—at least by herself. Perhaps with an assistant she may consider the task doable.

She rounded the corner that the diner resided on a little after nine-thirty. Inside her camera bag she heard her phone beep and she pulled it out to see a text from Selphie.

_ST: We're here!_

Rinoa slid the phone back into its pocket and reached for the door.

"Are you Rinoa?"

She jerked at the mention of her name. She hadn't even seen the man standing standing there he was so stone still. "Oh, wow, I didn't even see you—" Her words fizzled within her throat when she looked the stranger in the face. She blinked at him through the smoke that wafted up from his cigarette.

Those eyes. Never had she seen eyes such a color. They were a shade of blue-gray that she hadn't yet seen—and she had photographed _plenty. _They were intense and icy and enough to stop her midsentence. As if his piercing gaze weren't enough to intimidate and stop an unsuspecting person in their tracks, between those beautiful eyes was a scar that ran from above his right eyebrow and crossed over the bridge of his nose. The scar was noticeable but faded, clearly it was one he had had for many years. His long brown hair hung just below the nape of his neck, a strand tucked behind an ear to reveal a large and shiny black 0 gauge plug in his earlobe. "Um, yes, I'm Rinoa." She regained her composure and was suddenly feeling very grateful that she was wearing sunglasses and hoped that the lenses were thick enough to conceal her profane staring.

"Squall," he said, outstretching his hand.

"Ohhh…" she replied, stretching out the word as realization dawned on her. She placed her hand in his and firmly gave him a friendly shake. Her lips turned into a smirk and she tapped a finger to his shoulder. "Selphie did tell me that you have _very_ blue eyes." While she stared she thought of angles to shoot him from so that his penetrating glare would be the focus.

He gave a slight grin and sucked on his cigarette. "She did, huh?" he asked, exhaling the smoke through his teeth. "Yeah, I get that a lot." He crushed his cigarette into the ashtray behind him and jerked his head towards the door. "They're all inside."

"Have you been waiting long?"

Squall shook his head as he pulled open the door and led her inside. He took her to a large booth in the way back corner. Rinoa could see Selphie on one end with a tall man with a long ponytail to her left and then two blondes, one girl and one boy, sitting beside him. Without another word he slid onto the seat beside the blonde man with the spiked hair while Selphie hopped up and wrapped her arms around Rinoa.

"You're here!" She turned and waved her arm over the band. "Rinoa, my love, this is Absolute Lore! This is Irvine, the singer; Quistis, the bassist; Zell, the guitarist; and Squall, the drummer!"

Rinoa smiled and waved at each one as Selphie introduced them. "Hello!" she said.

Selphie pointed to the empty spot on the booth. "Go ahead and sit next to Squall and we'll order! We just ordered coffee, is that alright?"

"Oh, yes," Rinoa said and she set her bag down on the seat between her and Squall. "I do love coffee." She glanced over the menu briefly and quickly decided on strawberry and banana pancakes, something simple.

She tried not to stare at the group beside her, Selphie wasn't lying—they were _gorgeous._ Rinoa couldn't help but be envious of the bassist Quistis, her skin was the most perfect shade and texture of porcelain and her hair shone like gold. Rinoa wanted to dress her in black to enhance the contrast. Zell's tall and spiky hair demanded attention, and Rinoa could tell from a quick glance at his arms that beneath his loose fitting red t-shirt he had quite the chiseled body that came with the rigorous regime of boxing. In person, Irvine was almost _too _pretty. His killer smile was too perfect and his hair was almost too perfect to belong to a man. However, with the way Selphie was currently playing with it, Rinoa guessed that Selphie had a part in making his hair lovely.

And then there was the guy sitting next to her. Even now Rinoa was trying hard not to stare. He was the best looking guy there. Instantly there was attraction, physically, of course, since it was all she had to go on at the time. Though she couldn't recall a time where someone literally made her stop in her tracks and stare like an awestruck little teenager who had never seen the physical epitome of _handsome_.

The waitress came over to take their order and Rinoa was grateful for the quick distraction.

"Why don't you tell us a little about yourself?" Irvine prompted to fill in the gap while they waited for their food.

Rinoa tilted her head and caught her bottom lip between her teeth. "Oh, great, an "about me," my favorite!" she giggled. "Well…I just turned twenty-five last month, graduated from ECA about three years ago, became obsessed with photography at a young age after seeing my mom's old modeling portfolio, worked at a marketing firm in Timber for the last two years, I do my job well but I prefer my subjects to be actual humans rather than inanimate objects, my favorite color is blue, and I also take chocolate as a form of bribery not payment." She ended her severely summarized biography with a dazzling smile.

Zell nearly spit out his coffee. "Oh, I like her," he grinned.

Rinoa theatrically bowed her head to him in thanks. "Now then, your turn. Tell me about you, the band…what do you guys want to achieve? All that."

"Well," Zell started, wiping off his mouth with the back of his hand. "Quistis, Squall, and I all grew up in Balamb together and Irvine's from Galbadia. Squall and I used to jam together back in high school."

Rinoa covered her mouth to hide the audible squeal. She could just picture little baby Zell and Squall, both so tragically tortured by the catastrophic boundaries that entailed high school and thus their only escape was through the bliss of music.

Quistis was fiddling with her phone. "Oh, it was as adorable as it sounds," she said. "I think I have a picture somewhere…" While Squall and Zell watched, absolutely horrified, Quistis leaned over to Rinoa and showed her a picture of a picture.

Rinoa's jaw dropped and she gasped.

"I think this was right before their first battle of the bands," Quistis said, her nose crinkling as she snickered.

"Holy shit—look at that hair!" The picture displayed Zell holding the edge of a skateboard, his head shaved into a very precise and very tall green and blonde Mohawk. He wore ripped, red plaid shorts and a fitted black button-up shirt with the sleeves rolled up. Behind him was Squall, standing with one hand shoved into his black jeans while his other hand clutched his drum sticks. His hair was much longer then, long enough to pull into a low ponytail, Rinoa was only able to see it because he had his head turned away from the camera. "This is so cute!" She looked up to the two men who were now scowling at Quistis. "Oh, don't be upset!" Rinoa said. "I think what we should do is after we get some great group shots is to post up your old pictures of you. You know, a little Absolute Lore in the making?"

Squall shrugged in agreement to the idea. "Only if we get _that_ one picture of Quistis," he said lowly, his eyes glaring at the blonde over the rim of his coffee mug.

The blonde woman stopped laughing and instantly shot him a deadly look.

Zell laughed while Rinoa looked on in confusion at this little inside jab. "She was experimenting with eyeliner and false lashes," he quickly explained to Rinoa. "Let's just say that it didn't go well."

"Hey, I can relate," Rinoa said to Quistis. "I can't get those little fuckers on to save my life." She offered the other woman a wink which was responded with Quistis raising her mug in cheers.

"I think I look exactly the same," Irvine mused. "Except my hair's longer."

"And a lot prettier since I introduced him to conditioner." Selphie looked over to Rinoa with a horrified look. "Can you believe that this guy used two-in-one shampoo and conditioner on _this_ hair? That's like a cardinal sin!"

"_Anyways,_" Quistis said. "Squall and Irvine met when they worked at Dollet Tower Records together. Zell and Squall knew that I had been experimenting with playing bass for a while and…well…" She held her hands palms up as she gestured to the men surrounding her.

"We formed Absolute Lore about…" Irvine glanced around at his bandmates as he thought. "Perhaps a little over two years ago?"

Zell shrugged. "Something like that. We all met around three years ago, I remember because Squall and I had just gotten back from Centra for my twenty-third birthday." His lips curled into a mischievous grin and he sent a knowing look to Squall. "Man, you remember that?"

Squall gave a slight nod, his brows raising for a moment as he thought back to when he and Zell decided to leave town for a weekend. It had just so happened to be Zell's birthday so they decided to make a _carpe diem _feast out of it. "How could I forget?"

"Yeah, it's when I got these." He leaned over Squall towards Rinoa and pointed at the tattoos on his face.

Rinoa smiled and leaned closer, neither of them giving any regards to Squall's personal space as they practically talked on top of him. "I was wondering about those! They are so well done…" She took Zell's chin between her fingers and turned his head to the side so she could inspect the ink more. It was a tribal marking that started somewhere beneath his shirt collar and traveled up the left side of his neck and spread out across his cheek and up onto his temple. The shapes were spiky, sharp, and Rinoa could only assume that it must have hurt like hell. "The lines are so clean," she whispered. "So precise."

"Thanks! I think my guy did a pretty damn good job!"

Squall noisily cleared his throat, causing the two to turn their wide eyes at him. "You're in the way," he warned, his hand positioned in the small space between Rinoa and Zell so he could reach his mug.

"Oh, yeah," Zell reeled back and wagged a finger at Rinoa while she sat back as well. "Word to the wise: don't get in the way of Squall and his coffee." He watched Squall pulled the mug to his lips, his frown deepening as he listened to Zell. "Or cigarettes," Zell added. "But mostly his coffee, especially if it's morning."

Rinoa giggled. "Duly noted," she promised.

"We should go back to Centra," Zell said. "I don't think we've been back since then."

Squall shook his head after he thought about it for a moment. "No, we haven't," he agreed. "We've been too busy."

"If we go back you can get your other nipple pierced."

That caused Rinoa's jaw to drop while Squall nearly choked on his coffee. Her opened jaw widened even more into a large smile. "Holy shit, for real?" She looked over to Selphie who was holding onto Irvine's shoulder to steady herself from laughing. She turned back to Squall who was wiping his chin with the back of his hand.

"Fuck you, Zell," he muttered beneath his breath. Despite the strong words a smile crept to his lips as he spoke.

Rinoa gave Squall a supportive pat on the shoulder and waited for him to bring the mug back to his lips. "Hey, well if you guys decide to go I'll tag along with you," she said. She then sent Squall a sly grin. "I'll get my nipples pierced too, then we can be nipple buddies."

Squall had to spit the coffee back into the mug to keep himself from choking again. While the others roared with laughter, Rinoa covered her mouth with her fingers to keep her own laughter contained. He glared at her while he dragged the napkin over his mouth, but he couldn't help but have two thoughts enter his mind: one, that she was absolutely adorable at jabbing jokes at him (not many outside of their group made such an attempt) and two, her with pierced nipples. "Oh, you're funny," he said.

"I try."

Squall tossed the soiled napkin onto the table and lifted his brows to the server that came forward with their food. When the plates were settled in front of them and everyone was about to dig in, he shot another look at Rinoa. "You're lucky you're cute."

Rinoa stabbed a piece of pancake onto her fork and scrunched her nose at him. "And you're lucky you're so observant." She looked over to Selphie and Quistis with a mock concerned look. "Shit, is he _always_ like this?"

"Worse," Quistis said between bites. "In fact, I think this is considered his best behavior."

Rinoa turned to Squall and made a face. "See, now you're lucky _you're_ cute."

* * *

After they finished eating, Rinoa dabbed the napkin to her lips. "Are you guys busy after this? I'd like to take a few test shots to play around with if you have the time."

Quistis glanced down at the watch around her wrist. "I don't work until later, but I would like to head home and take a quick nap before then." It was just after ten, so she definitely had some time. "I think I'm the only one busy tonight, right?"

"Yeah, my 12 o'clock client called me last night to cancel his sparring session today so I'm free until three the latest," Zell said.

"We don't have anything planned, do we?" Irvine asked Selphie, his arm around her waist.

She shook her head. "No, I think this was the only thing we planned on." She looked over to the brunette. "Squall?"

He shook his head. "I'm down. We can head to the studio."

Rinoa excitedly clapped her hands. "Is it far?"

"About twenty minutes away," Zell said. "Close to the industrial center."

"Great! If anything, I'd like to at least get some shots of you guys posing with your instruments if they're set up. You guys desperately need to update the pictures on your web page…it's pretty sad." Rinoa crinkled her nose as she thought back on the pictures she had perused through in horror. "Seriously, you guys won't regret your decision in hiring me. I am going to work _magic_ with you."

Selphie excitedly clapped her hands and pulled herself from the booth. "I can't wait to get started!" She grabbed Rinoa's wrist and yanked her to her feet. "I'll drive you over there since you don't have your car yet."

"Why thank you," Rinoa purred. "Could you take me home afterwards too?"

"Oh, now you're just being needy."

Rinoa gave Selphie a quick pinch to the waist. "Don't be a brat."

* * *

The studio was a hollowed out office space end unit in the industrial center. The walls had been strategically covered with sound proofing foam insulation. "We don't get too many complaints," Irvine was saying as Rinoa glanced around to the neighboring buildings. "Most of the units here are warehouses and small distribution centers for small time retail shops, so it's not like we'd be disturbing any important meetings or appointments."

"Most of the time we try to keep our practice schedules on the weekends," Quistis added. "But sometimes that doesn't happen and we just come in whenever we can."

"As long as we're not practicing after ten we're pretty much golden." Zell walked over to the mini fridge in the corner and grabbed a water bottle. "Squall, toss me some waters, fridge is getting empty."

Rather than doing what Zell asked, Squall simply picked up the case of water bottles and set it on top of the fridge. Ignoring the curt remarks from the blonde, Squall walked over to a window and slid it open. He stuck his head out and reached into his pocket for his cigarettes. "Hey Reg," he called to the older man who walked by the window.

"Hey," the man said. "Having practice today, kiddos?"

"Just a quick one," Quistis said. "We're having some pictures taken. Do you mind?"

The older man shook his head and waved a hand at Quistis. "Not at all! I'm actually heading off to get some grub. I think the stockers in the unit behind you are also heading to lunch soon." He glanced at the silver watch around his wrist and nodded. "Yeah, I know Khale said they came in at six this morning, so they're probably gonna be leaving soon for their meal break. Have fun kiddos!"

Squall lit his cigarette and waved the man off.

Rinoa instantly started snapping away at the interior of the studio. It was a very impromptu photoshoot as she didn't have any of her lighting equipment, so she worked the best she could with the natural light that came shining through the open windows.

Quistis picked up her metallic purple Ibanez. Her fingers ran over the five strings and she pulled it close to her so the mahogany body became flush to her stomach. In almost a sensual caress she gripped the neck.

Zell's cherry red seven-string Gibson Les Paul rested perfectly within his hands. The strap was brandished with little blue dolphins. He caught the questioning look in Rinoa's eyes and he sheepishly smiled. "When I was a kid dolphins were my favorite animal," he said. "My mom bought this for me a few years ago when Absolute Lore had their first gig at an actual venue."

The squeal that escaped Rinoa's lips accurately described the emotion of "Awwwwww!" that she was feeling. Even with the spiked hair, the hard eyes, and the menacing tattoos, he was really just a mama's boy.

Irvine grinned at Rinoa's reaction and wrapped his long fingers around the mic stand. "Yeah, Mama Dincht is great. I think she even cooked us a full on meal before we went on. Said that we would not play on an empty stomach if she couldn't help it."

"Yeah, my Ma's pretty goddamn amazing."

Rinoa's eyes widened at the sight of Squall's drum kit. She couldn't even name all the pieces that were set up in front of her. Pointing out the bass and guitar were easy, they were one long hunks of wood. The drum kit was more complex, consisted of more pieces. She recognized the cymbals and…was that called a kick drum? Or bass drum? She didn't want to open her mouth and make a fool of herself so she simply nodded her head in appreciation of the band members and their musical extension of themselves.

"Wow," she said, walking over to the solid black Yamaha drum kit. "This is…I can't even try to word what this is!" Her eyes traveled over the cymbals, one in particular was leaning against the wall behind Squall's throne seat. The cymbal was falling apart in the middle, looking as if someone had cut a smile into it. "What happened here?"

Squall, now finished with his cigarette, picked up the cymbal and rhythmically tapped his fingernails over the jagged surface. "Years of wear and tear," he answered.

Rinoa raised her camera and snapped a few quick shots of his gloved hands running over the edge of the cymbal, his head slightly turned downward as he studied the damage. When Rinoa asked why he hadn't thrown it away he set it back down against the wall.

"I like the trashy-tinny noise it makes."

Good answer.

Rinoa turned at the sound of Quistis absently plucking at her strings. Her aquamarine eyes stared off into a blank space in the carpet as her fingers moved as if they had a mind of their own. She didn't have a song or beat in mind, she just went along with it and let her fingers work their magic. Rinoa lowered to her knees and took a few shots.

Quistis bit back a smile at the quick sounds of the shutter, but she suddenly became very aware that she was being watched and photographed, and a fit of giggles threatened to spill from her. Her nose crinkled as she tried to hold it in.

"I know, I know," Rinoa laughed. "But seriously, stay as natural as possible. This is great!" At the sound of Zell chuckling, Rinoa spun on her knees and caught a few shots of him strumming his guitar.

Trying his best to ignore her and act as naturally as possible, Zell decided to bust out a guitar riff from one of his favorite songs. His head bobbed to the notes, his jaw tightening as he let the chords speak to him.

Recognizing the song instantly, Squall crawled onto his throne and immediately joined in, the tips of his drumsticks gently tapping along the edges of the cymbal before crashing down violently onto the skins. Quistis lifted her head and stood to her feet, her fingers working effortlessly through the strings of her bass. Irvine took hold of his black and white Gibson and suddenly Rinoa was surrounded by the music. The two separate guitars fed off each other, their strums bouncing off the other with their complementing sounds.

She recognized the song just by the chords that slammed into her, by the jarring drum beat that vibrated beneath her feet, and then, when Irvine stepped behind his mic, by the growling and throaty lyrics. "I can't see I can't see I'm going blind…I can't see I can't see I'm going blind…" he crooned into the mic, his eyes shut tight and teeth bared as he let the words crawl out.

They surrounded her completely, had unknowingly created a circle around her that pulsed heavy and sharp beats. She spun around, focusing her camera on each one individually as they played. It was only for a minute or two, as they didn't play the song in its entirety, but even in that short amount of time she could feel the energy and choreography that pulsated within the band. They were so in tune with each other that even though Zell had started near the beginning of the song, he had jumped forward a bit and they followed suit without missing any such beat.

They were extraordinary.

Rinoa lowered her camera, a large and excited smile plastered on her face. In those short moments she had captured quite a few photographs already. She even caught a few of Selphie dancing in the background. "Holy shit," she said when they stopped. "That was amazing."

"Yeah, we're pretty awesome aren't we?" Zell said, haughtily polishing his knuckles against the collar of his shirt. He looked over to Squall who suggested they play one of their own songs next, and suddenly the unit was filled with music so hard and so heavy that Rinoa felt it take vibrating hold over her heart. The melody that these people were creating caused the tiny hairs on the back of her neck to stand on end.

The throaty and crooning growls that came from Irvine, the deep tonality of Quistis' bass, the heavy riffs from Zell's guitar, and the violent and complex thrashings from Squall's drums…together they came as one harmonious and devastatingly heavy poem.

She trained her camera onto Squall's gloved hands that were wrapped around the worn drumsticks that were fervently crashing onto the cymbals. She smiled at the concentration and the passion that was etched into his face.

_I love my job,_ she thought as started clicking away.

* * *

**"Blind" song, music, and lyrics all belong to Korn.**


	3. Chapter 3

After nearly an hour of their impromptu private show for Rinoa, they all rested along the couches that were set up against the wall. Selphie greedily chugged at her water bottle, overheated from her mad dancing. Those who didn't "understand" rock music always voiced their opinions and would rudely ask her how someone could dance to rock. In her opinion, if there was a beat there was a way to dance! Her dances usually consisted of her rolling her hips and swinging her hair back and forth and possibly even just jumping in place. Either way, whenever they played the music would just grab her, shake her madly, and make her want to _move._

Selphie turned and hopped onto the arm rest of the couch. "How'd they come out?" she asked, peering over Rinoa's head to watch her flip through the camera's digital roll. "Ooh! That's a really good one of Quistis!"

The blonde's left hand was cradling the maple neck of her bass while her right hand was in mid-slap over her strings. The way she held the bass against her body was so sensual and seductive, as if she held a lover. Her lips were parted in a breathy gasp and her fringe was a golden blur over her eyes as she moved.

Selphie looked over to the woman in question who was handing a lighter back to Squall. "Hot damn woman!"

Quistis sent her a bashful smile as she sucked on her cigarette. "Why thank you," she said, bowing slightly. "Although I can't say that I ever thought myself as photogenic."

Rinoa glanced up from her camera with an incredulous look on her face. "What? Are you serious?" There had been times where Rinoa came across drop dead gorgeous woman who would just appear stiff and awkward in photographs, but those were very few and far in between. This woman before her, however, could take a fabulous picture even during an asthma attack. "Yeah, no, you are insane."

"She just isn't able to take compliments," Zell commented with a casual shrug. "She's been like that for as long as I can remember."

"Well, start getting used to compliments," Rinoa said. "Because your band is about to blow up and people all over the world are going to see your beautiful face and go nuts about it." She smiled when the blonde woman's cheeks began to flush. "I'm not exaggerating either."

Irvine came over and took the water bottle from Selphie. "Don't compliment her too much, we don't want her head getting all big and full of herself." He sent Quistis a debonair grin before taking a long swallow.

"As long as it doesn't get as big as yours, I'm sure I'll be just fine," Quistis shot back with a sweet yet oh-so-sharp smile. She glanced down at her watch. "I'm gonna head home. I want to get some sleep before my shift tonight."

"Where do you work?" Rinoa asked.

"I'm a bartender at The Red Scorpion." She wagged a brow at Rinoa. "Even though the late shifts kill me, the tips I get are _amazing._"

"I bet!"

Selphie hopped off the couch and clapped her hands. "Ooh! We should all go tonight!" She turned to Rinoa with a huge smile. "Quistis makes the best Long Island. We can go and celebrate the awesome photoshoot we had!"

"Yeah…celebrate," Quistis said with a twist to her lips. "While I'm working."

Selphie's eyes widened and she covered her mouth. "Oh…wait."

Quistis broke into laughter and gave the smaller girl a friendly smack to the ass. "I'm kidding. It's only Wednesday, I'm sure it'll be slow enough where I can hang out at the table without getting bitched at." She placed her hand on the door and waved them off. "My shift starts at six, see you later!"

Rinoa wiggled her fingers at blonde in farewell. Her eyes trained downwards back to the screen on her camera. After flipping through a few shots she landed on the ones of Squall. His arms were crossed over his body to reach towards the left floor tom. His head was facing the right side of his kit, as he was in preparation of moving his beats across the entire kit. The look in his eyes caused Rinoa to suck in a breath. It was so intense, so piercing, his jaw clenched and determined, as if he were strategizing a battle.

A hand gently cupped her elbow and she jolted. Turning her head, she saw Squall right behind her. "Ok, I need to see what's on your back," Squall said, motioning for Rinoa to spin around for him.

She crinkled her nose and lowered her camera. "What?"

"I tried looking at it before but your hair was covering it."

"Oh." The tattoos on her body were not too visible to someone who was standing immediately in front of her. She liked it that way. Her tattoo artist, Raymond, designed it and executed his vision so expertly. She reached behind her head and separated her long hair into two thick sections and draped them over her front so that her back was exposed.

The wings started from her scapula and spread out over the thin surface of the backs of her arms. The last feather reached to her elbows. Squall's brows raised in admiration at the fine art of the details in each feather that was inked into her skin.

"Nice ink," he said.

Rinoa turned to look at him over her shoulder. "Thank you."

"How long of a sitting was it?"

Rinoa lowered her lashes to look at the feathers that extended towards her elbow. "Well, the first shoulder he took longer on," she said, remembering. "I think he was gauging it and seeing what to do. So the second shoulder he was done in like…half the time? Anyways, I think it was about a six hour session. I know after the first shoulder we took a break and ordered pizza."

"Nice. Did you get it when you lived in Timber?"

"No, my first year in college my whole photography class went to the Esthar campus for a seminar. My roommate met another student there who also worked as a tattoo artist and…" She glanced down at the skin ran her fingers down her arm with pride. "As you can see, he is very talented."

Squall nodded, his eyes still focusing on the details of each feather. "Understatement," he commented. "He does wonderful work. Shit, does he still work at a shop or have his own now? I may need to contact him if we ever go through Esthar."

"Oh, you have tattoos?" Rinoa quickly glanced down, her brows furrowing when she saw that his arms were completely bare of any ink. It had seemed that Zell was the only inked up patron of Absolute Lore.

Squall's eyes sparked with a hint of mischief that was gone as quickly as it had come. "It's hidden," he said.

"…where?"

"I'd have to be naked." He managed to completely obscure the laugh that wanted to erupt from him when Rinoa's jaw dropped open. He had become quite infamous for his emotionless poker face and now it was practically second nature to him. Sure, it resulted in people thinking he was a complete dick, but he could live with that. When Rinoa opened her mouth again, he simply leaned in—not too close, but close enough where he could see the flush begin to creep at the apples of her cheeks—and said quietly, "And you'd have to take me out to dinner at least three times to get that far."

Before she could respond, he stepped away and gestured to Zell. "I'm heading out, want a ride to your car?"

Zell turned away from Selphie, who was apparently showing him something on her phone. "Yeah! Sure." He pulled out his own phone from his jeans and looked at the time. "Yeah, I think I'll head to the gym early and do a few workouts before my client shows up. You wanna join?"

Squall shrugged. "I've got nothing to do today." As he and Zell got ready to leave, he waved to the three that remained. "We'll see you all at The Red Scorpion?"

"Sounds good!" Irvine said, draping an arm around Selphie's shoulder. "Rinoa, did you want us to drop you off at home?"

"Huh?" Rinoa turned around to face the couple, her brown eyes still wide and the faint flush still fading from her skin. "Oh, yeah, I guess." She twisted her lips as she thought. "Although I did want to run to the home decor store to see if I could find some stuff for the apartment…"

Selphie perked up at the mention of shopping. "I can take you! Irvine's apartment is really close by so I can drop him off there…"

"Actually, if you're going to do that…I'll just head to the gym with the guys." He herded them out and called out to Squall who had just opened his car door. "I'll catch you later," he said to Selphie, leaning in to give her a kiss. "It was great meeting you Rinoa, I feel really good about this project."

Rinoa smiled brightly. "As do I! Have fun." She waved at the three men who entered into the matte black Jeep Wrangler and then turned away to walk with Selphie to her bright yellow VW Beetle.

"So which store were you thinking of?" Selphie asked as they were buckling themselves in.

"That huge one off of Garden Boulevard…I can never remember the name."

"Got it. I know the one."

* * *

Just under twenty minutes later, the girls were perusing the aisles filled with everything and anything that was made for the home. Rinoa had made a beeline to the bedding. "Apparently Caraway got rid of all my sheets so I've been sleeping with one blanket and a naked pillow."

"Aw!"

"Yeah he said he thought he had extra ones but he called last night to say that he couldn't find them…so he told me to buy some and that he'd reimburse me."

Selphie shrugged. "Well, that's good at least. I'll get you a cart."

Not too long after the cart was filled with a thick package containing black and dark blue Moroccan print bed sheets and pillow cases, a few throw pillows, a toilet paper holder (hers had just broken off and rather than just fixing it, she took the whole thing down), a purple bathmat, and a few dishes and glasses. "I think I'm ready! Oh…wait…" Rinoa quickly walked up to a lamp that had a gold spray-painted steer skull as its base. "This too."

"You need a new lamp?"

"No," Rinoa said, gently placing it into the cart. "I just want it." She sent Selphie a grin and pulled the cart towards an open register. If there was one thing Rinoa knew she really had to work on, it was her impulse buying. Moving across the country really helped her put it into perspective. While yes, most of the _furniture_ at her old apartment belonged to her roommate, Dez, a lot of the little knickknacks were all results of Rinoa's constant perusing of thrift shops. Originally she wanted to go to a thrift shop, but she thought that if she went to a home décor store the items would be a bit more expensive and thus she wouldn't be able to buy _as much._ For the most part it worked…but dammit she really wanted that lamp. It would look perfect beside her bed and then she would post the print she had of one of her old models who was posing with a steer skull. _See? I totally needed this, _Rinoa justified to herself.

* * *

Selphie dropped her off back home and promised that she'd come by later to pick her up to go to The Red Scorpion. It was just after one now, and Rinoa figured she would have some time to upload the photographs she had taken. She may not be able to have any time to edit them today, but at least then they'd be uploaded and ready to go for when she was able.

"Ninety-four pictures?" Rinoa stammered. She only shot for about an hour, and they were not continuous shots. Between shots she found herself just standing and staring, completely in awe at the music that thrashed around her. She had thought perhaps she had taken around fifty, tops. It wasn't uncommon for her to take large amounts of photographs, during a four hour maternity session she found that she had taken close to six hundred. It happens.

She created a new folder on her computer labeled 'Absolute Lore.' Within that folder she made another one with today's date, and then separate folders for each band member. As she began to organize she wondered if she should have separate folders for each member _first_ and _then _a folder with the date or event, but then she shrugged and decided she could alter it later on if she found it easier.

After a few minutes of sorting and moving files, she stretched her arms high overhead and leaned back against her chair. She let out a breath as she felt her sternum pop. "Ooh," she said, shifting her shoulders to loosen up her muscles.

Rinoa straightened her back and began to go through each individual file. Since they were alphabetical, she went through Irvine's first. That man knew how to work a camera. Rinoa grinned and wondered if he had any prior experience to modeling. She wouldn't be surprised, he was definitely very pretty. She caught a few great shots of him holding his mic so tenderly close to his mouth, his eyes staring straight into the camera as if beckoning the viewer to come closer.

There was even a small folder for Selphie. Inside were only a few shots, perhaps only five, and they mostly consisted of Selphie dancing with her hands up in the air and she eyes closed and teeth biting her lower lip as she let the music consume her. It was a mixture of sensual and innocent movement. Rinoa made a mental note to send a copy to Irvine.

Next was Squall's. Immediately Rinoa noticed she had taken a significantly larger amount of shots of Squall than she had of Irvine. "Uh oh," she said, clicking the back button and going into Quistis' folder and then Zell's. Then she started counting. Irvine had seventeen shots, Selphie five, Quistis had sixteen, and Zell also had sixteen, the interior of the studio had ten, so Squall had… "_Thirty?_" Rinoa's lips thinned out as she looked over the shots she had taken. They weren't even continuous shots of the same drum roll or song…_that_ she could understand. No, she had clearly kept going back to him with her camera.

"Well…they _are_ amazing shots," she said to herself. "And he definitely does more complex movements…We'll just never speak of this. Yep. That sounds good." Brushing aside the embarrassing feeling that threatened to creep across her skin, she resumed to going through each folder to pick out _one_ favorite. It was always a difficult task, and one that would sometimes take several hours, so she figured it was the perfect time killer until it was time to go to the bar.

Before she knew it Selphie was banging on her door. Rinoa looked over to the clock at the bottom of her screen as if it had insulted her. "What the hell?" It was already six-forty. "Shit!" She closed out the folders and hurried to the door. "Sorry! Totally lost track of time. I was going through the pictures from today."

"How'd they turn out?" Irvine asked.

"Really good! Can't wait to show you guys. Um, come on in, I just want to change real quick."

Selphie closed the front door behind her and then glanced down at the shopping bags that were in the middle of the living room. "You didn't even take your things out of the bags?" she asked, completely in shock.

Rinoa motioned for her to follow to her room. "Nah, I'll get to it later. I want to wash the sheets before I sleep on them. Oh shit, I should probably put them in the wash before I go. Dammit."

"Oh, I can ask Irvine to help. He's really good at laundry. His sheets are always so comfy and soft and never starchy." She retracted back to the living room. "Hey babe? Big favor, can you help Rinoa with her sheets?"

"Huh? Like make her bed?"

"No, she bought some sheets today and wants to wash them before she goes to bed." Selphie dug the package out of the bag and unzipped the plastic.

Irvine watched her and caught on. "Gotcha. Yeah, just show me her washer." He followed Selphie to the washer and dryer unit in the hallway and he quickly assessed the knobs, buttons, and her detergent. "I got this covered," he said, gently pushing her back towards Rinoa's room.

Selphie poked her head into Rinoa's room and found her in the closet. "What are you planning on wearing?"

"I was just changing my top." Rinoa emerged from her closet having changed into a white lace camisole that clung to her like a second skin and a cropped black cardigan. "What kind of place is The Red Scorpion?"

"It's nice. Not super family-oriented but there are times where there's a lot of kids, but it's not all adult-themed either. They brew their own beer there too!" Selphie took Rinoa's hand and pulled her into the hallway where Irvine was just closing the door to the washing machine.

"It'll be ready for you to put in the dryer by the time you get back. We shouldn't be out too late, I have to work in the morning," he said.

* * *

Squall and Zell were already sitting down with their beers by the time the three of them arrived. In front of Squall was a half empty tall glass filled with amber liquid and a shot glass still full with his usual fill of whiskey. He was waiting for more food to be in his stomach before he took the shot.

"Which beer did you order?" Irvine asked, pulling out a chair for Selphie.

"The Stinger and my usual," replied Squall. "Zell decided to try the stout tonight."

Zell smacked his lips as he deciphered the taste. "It's not bad. Normally I'm not a huge fan of stout but this one's pretty good. Here, try it." He pushed it towards Squall who took a long sip.

After a moment he tilted his head. "Yeah, not bad."

"Is the Stinger their house brew?" Rinoa asked as she sat down.

Squall nodded. "Yeah, the owner and his wife came up with it a few years ago." He handed his glass to her. "Try it."

Rinoa took a sip and handed the glass back. "It's pretty good!" It wasn't too heady or tart where it made her want to continuously smack her tongue on the roof of her mouth. It didn't leave a bitter aftertaste in her mouth. The aftertaste was almost…fruity, like raspberry.

Quistis came over and leaned her arm on top of Zell's head, ignoring his cries to watch the spikes. "Oh please, they've fallen flat thanks to your sweat from the gym," she shot back. "Anyways, what can I get you? Rinoa?"

"I'm liking this!" she said pointing to the glass in front of Squall.

"The Stinger or the Squall?"

Rinoa blinked. "Wait, what?"

Quistis gestured to the shot glass. "Because the Squall is bitter, harsh, and leaves you feeling disgusted in the morning."

"I always order a shot of whiskey with my beer every time I come here," Squall explained. "It's gotten to the point that everyone at the bar just calls it "The Squall"."

"Oh, I wasn't talking about the whiskey. She'd probably get less headache from _that._" Quistis gave Rinoa a wink and grinned when the other girl caught onto the joke. Before Squall could retaliate, Quistis waved him off and continued. "The Stinger doesn't do that, the Stinger understands." She then took everyone's order and hurried away towards the bar.

Zell was laughing as he watched Squall simply shake his head. "Oh man," he said. "That was hilarious. God I love that woman. She always gets you good!"

"I know," Squall said, his eyes narrowing as he brought his beer to his lips. "Bitch."

"Hey Squall!"

Squall turned his eyes toward the pretty brunette that approached him. She was tall, leggy, curvy, and showcased a megawatt smile. Squall sent her a nod of acknowledgement as he threw back his head to finish his beer. "Hey Kendra," he said back.

The girl waved politely to the rest of the group, who in turn returned their own hellos. Her eyes paused on Rinoa. "Hi!" she said. "I'm Kendra. You look new!"

Rinoa smiled back and offered her hand. "I'm Rinoa. I'm their photographer."

Kendra's eyes widened and Rinoa took notice of how blue they were and how the thick black and precise line of eyeliner accentuated that blue. "They finally got one?" she gasped. "It's about time! They are seriously infamous for their lack of pictures. I don't know how a band that's been around a few years managed to avoid cameras but somehow they did it."

Rinoa had to laugh at that, she wondered the same thing. "Well not anymore! I got a few great shots today and once I get them edited I'll have them put up on their web page. So keep an eye out!"

"How wonderful!" Kenra said, clasping her hands together in delight. "Well, I look forward to seeing them." She smiled and waved her fingers at the group before turning. "Bye Squall," she said, her smile lingering on him for a moment longer. "It was good seeing you."

He held up two fingers in salute as a goodbye.

It was good enough for Kendra, and soon she was walking back over to a crowded table filled with loud and laughing customers. As she returned to her seat, the man beside her slid a welcomed arm around her shoulders.

Quistis walked up and placed another full beer in front of Squall. "Figured you needed another one," she said, nodding towards the empty glass before him. She then shuffled out everyone else's drinks. "You want another beer, Zell?"

"Oh, no thanks. Still working on this one."

Quistis glanced at her watch. "In a few minutes I'm taking a break. Be back." She cleared off whatever empty glasses were on the table and quickly walked away.

Squall grabbed the beer in front of him, grateful that Quistis had so speedily brought him another one. She had feigned the reasoning to be due to her expertise of a bartender taking note of an empty glass, but deep down they both knew the real reason. She was just sparing his pride by trying to pretend. It was appreciated.

The silence that hovered around the group wasn't quite to the point of uncomfortable awkwardness. It was more so cautious, wary, and from the looks that crossed between the other three at the table, they were waiting and gauging any reaction from Squall. If they were waiting for a loud and brash reaction then they were sorely mislead, as all he did was slowly and calmly sip from his beer.

Rinoa, never one for subduing her curiosity, spoke first. "Ex-girlfriend I take it?" she gently asked. "I don't mean to pry…just curious."

Squall glanced at her over the rim of his glass. He shook his head as he lowered his beer to the table. "No," he answered honestly. "…not quite sure what I'd call her." His…_situation_…with Kendra wasn't complicated but it also didn't have much a label to it. In layman's terms they wanted different things from each other, so whatever it was that had gone between them hadn't gone very far. However, despite the lack of titles or labeling, their _separation_ had resulted in quite a mess.

Rinoa sucked on her bottom lip for a moment as silence rose up between them. She caught the questioning looks that bounced between Irvine and Zell but did not know enough to decipher it. Suddenly a giggle threatened to pop. "Did she take you to three dinners?"

Squall didn't even have a chance to smother the laughter that snuck out of him. The laugh was so loud and genuine that Selphie jerked in surprise and nearly spilled her drink. "To be honest, I don't think it made it past two," he said to Rinoa.

He saw Quistis approaching them and he nodded at her. "I'll be back," he said, sliding out of the booth with his cigarettes already in hand. "You have your own or you want one of mine?" he asked her.

"Got my own," Quistis responded, hurriedly shooing him towards the patio.

When the two were out of earshot, Rinoa turned to Selphie. "You ok?"

Selphie grinned and nodded. "Yeah, he doesn't normally laugh like that—it shocked me! Did not think he was capable of it." Sighing and waving the incident aside, she reached for the menu. "Did you wanna share a nacho platter with me?" she asked Rinoa. "It's like really big and I don't think I can finish it by myself. I'm hungry but I'm not _hungry_."

"Sure!" When it came to food, there wasn't much chance of Rinoa saying no. "So, did I open up a can of worms?" she asked with a grimace. "Sometimes I just can't help myself and just start asking questions and then keep talking and rambling and making the situation worse."

Irvine shook his head and Zell gave a reassuring shake to her shoulder. "As I'm sure you've noticed, Squall doesn't talk much when it comes to his personal life. Hell, _we_ don't even fully know the whole story about Kendra. All we know is that she was there and then all of a sudden she wasn't."

"Clearly whatever it was she isn't quite yet over," Irvine commented. When Rinoa and Zell turned their eyes to him, he leaned in and subtlety gestured behind him. "She keeps glancing over to where Squall and Quistis are outside."

Curious, Rinoa took a quick glance to her left and saw that the patio was indeed in Kendra's direct line of vision. Even though Squall and Quistis had their backs turned, it was very obvious as to who was standing outside. Trying to be as sneaky as ever, Rinoa took a brief peek to where Kendra was sitting. Rinoa must have just missed her, because the brunette had her head turned so she could focus on the group at her own table. "Well, I just hope I didn't make a bad impression with my nosiness," Rinoa said. "It's not good for business when you're model doesn't like you."

"You made him literally laugh out loud," Selphie said, her eyes wide. "He can't think you're all that bad." Her eyes moved behind Rinoa and she smiled as Quistis started to round the table.

"Hungry? Did you want to order anything before I head back to the bar?" she asked.

"Yes!" Selphie leaned forward. "Me and Rinoa want nachos."

Quistis nodded and looked at Rinoa. "They are _amazing_," she said. "I hope you like jalapeños." She looked over to the boys of the group. "Anything for you guys?" Zell and Irvine ordered Buffalo wings while Squall ordered a burger. "Coming up." She turned on her heels and went back to the bar, relaying the order to one of the cooks.

As they waited for their food, Rinoa tried to talk business. "So, where would you guys like to have a photoshoot? Any look or theme you guys want in particular?"

"Let's not talk business right now," Irvine said with a grin. "We are celebrating! Tonight it's all about having fun, thanking our lovely photographer for joining the team, and just being surrounded by great people!" He held up his glass and quickly looked behind him. "Hey, Quistis!" When his booming voice caught her attention he jerked his head to beckon her. She held up a finger, finished pouring a patron's shot, and then came over. "To the success of Absolute Lore!" Irvine said. "Next week we have a show and it will be photographed by our new talented photographer. May our band blow up and reach the ears of hundreds of thousands!"

"Oh, not millions?" Quistis asked.

"Baby steps, doll-face, baby steps."

Irvine's toast had reached the ears of some of the bar's patrons and staff. The staff knew them very well and had heard their songs thanks to Quistis' playlist that she put on full blast while they were closing up. They cheered and held up their hands in the shape of horns in support for their local band.

"Next week Saturday!" Zell cried. "We'll be playing at Strange Vision! Hope to see every last one of you there!"

Rinoa clasped her hands in endearing excitement as she watched the bar turn into an uproar of hoots and hollers. Another bartender actually reached over to the stereo and cranked up the volume so that the CD inside, Absolute Lore, of course, filled the establishment. It was so heart-warming to see how loved this local band was. Even though they weren't famous—yet—they clearly had a lot of fans and had touched so many people.

Squall nodded his head to the beat and tapped his fingers along his thigh as he watched as the bar's staff began to dance around, whip their hair back and forth, and sing along. He couldn't help but smile to himself. _This_ was what music was supposed to do, make people enjoy themselves and bring them together.

A faint movement out of the corner of his eye snagged his attention. He turned his head slightly and saw Kendra beaming at him, her red lips turned upward into that shining smile she always displayed. When she saw that she had caught his gaze, she raised her glass in a toast, which Squall responded with a polite lift of his chin.


	4. Chapter 4

_Rinoa Heartilly_

_8:32 p.m._

**_Friday night and I'm editing photos!_**

That was the life of a photographer. Rinoa had just finished editing a quick collage of the band. She picked one photo of each of them and stitched them together and then in the middle she stuck in the band's logo. Of course, her watermark, a quick squiggle of an angel's wing with her initials embossed inside, rested at the bottom right corner.

At the top left was the photograph of Irvine, staring so deep and intensely at the viewer. To the right of Irvine was Zell, leaning backwards with his back arched, his fingers blurry and quick across the seven strings, and his head thrown back as he let the sounds possess him. Below Zell was Quistis, her fingers splayed out across her strings as she slapped them. She was looking off camera but Rinoa had managed to capture Quistis biting her lower lip almost hypnotically.

Then, coming full circle, was Squall. Rinoa had caught the moment right before he assaulted the hi-hat with his sticks. The look in his eyes was predatory and extremely sexy. Rinoa admired the passion he exuded when it came to his craft, it was clearly something he took very seriously.

She had met him only two days before, she had not seen much emotion on his face aside from the rare laugh she had managed to squeeze out of him. It was very much apparent that he was not one to wear his emotions on his sleeve. However, when it came to drumming, the passion and the love and the excitement he felt for it was clear as the scar on his face. As an artist, Rinoa couldn't help but appreciate that aspect of him.

She pulled out her phone and texted Irvine for the password for Absolute Lore's social media page.

_I.K: Wait, you're done already?_

_R.H: HAHAHAHA oh you are hilarious! No, I need the password to the page. I have a little teaser photo ready to go =)_

_I.K: Gotcha._

He sent her the password and she immediately posted the collage onto the page. Beneath, the caption read: _Here's a little teaser from Absolute Lore's mini-photoshoot the other day. More to come soon!_

Rinoa clicked _post_ and sat back in her chair. She made an audible squeal of delight and clapped her hands. "Holy shit I am so excited!" she giggled to herself.

* * *

Squall entered the bar Motley's and pulled up into one of the stools. Even though it was a Friday night, the bar was more so steady rather than busy. He looked over to the large clock on the wall and saw that it was just after ten. He nodded to the bartender who offered him a smile. He had seen her before, he recognized the streak of pink in her platinum blonde hair.

"How's it going, buddy?" she asked while she finished pouring a drink for the customer in front of her.

"It's going," Squall responded.

She nodded and approached him. "What can I get you tonight?"

Squall let his eyes roam over the multitude of glass bottles that sat perfectly displayed across from him. "I'll just get the raspberry wheat homebrew for now," he said. Inwardly he thought about ordering his normal shot of whiskey but thought he would wait to get his beer first.

"You got it," said the bartender as she made her way over to the tap.

A buzzing sounded off from his jeans' pocket. Squall cleared his throat and pulled his phone from his pants. He saw the name across the screen and frowned in momentary confusion. It was Kendra and she was saying that the little teaser picture on Absolute Lore's page looked amazing.

"The what?" he muttered.

"Here you go." The bartender placed a glass in front of Squall and hurried off to cater to another customer before he could say his thanks.

Squall went onto Absolute Lore's page from his phone and saw the photo that Rinoa had put up. "Oh, nice," he said to himself as he sipped his beer. Kendra was right, the photo did look great. Selphie's friend most certainly was talented. Even though he had already known that from his inspection of her photography page, it was a different matter when it came to photos of himself.

_S.L: Thanks._

_K: No problem! =) It was nice seeing you the other day, sorry we didn't get much chance to catch up. I was at a birthday dinner._

_S.L: It's all good._

_K: So how have you been? It's been a while =)_

Squall sighed and read over the words on the screen. Even though he had heard of the infamous "meaning" behind the usage of smiley emoticons, he knew that Kendra did not use them that way. She honestly just liked them and thought they were cute. In fact, many girls he had come across used smiley emoticons in very harmless ways. He took a few gulps of his drink before he responded.

_S.L: I'm good. Just staying busy with the band. You know._

_K: I actually heard one of your songs on the radio the other day. I think Rae is now your biggest fan. She like became star-gazed when I told her the bassist was a woman._

_S.L: Glad to hear it._

He came to the bottom of his glass and decided he wanted his whiskey shot. "Excuse me? Could I get a shot of Jack and another beer please?"

"Sure thing," said the bartender, giving him a nod of acknowledgement.

_K: Your photographer is very talented._

_S.L: That she is. She's Selphie's friend._

_K: Who?_

Squall thought for a moment and then realized that Kendra hadn't even met Selphie, Irvine and Selphie met after Kendra was already out of the picture. _Shit,_ he thought. _How long has it been now? _His new drinks appeared before him and he signaled his thanks to the bartender.

_S.L: Irvine's girl._

_K: Someone actually snagged him? Wow, we really are getting old if Irvine's starting to settle down =)_

Squall had to laugh at that. It had always been a common thought of the group that Irvine would be the last to settle down with one person. Before Selphie, Irvine was clearly enjoying the rock star lifestyle, groupies included. Squall was actually the first to notice the spark that lit up in Irvine's eyes when he and Selphie had first met. The cowboy had tried brushing it off at first, muttering lame nonsense that she was just another girl and he'd probably never see her again. Sure enough, they crossed paths again a few weeks later and the rest was history.

_S.L: Yeah, go figure that the womanizer of the band is the only one in a relationship._

_K: =( no lady for you?_

_S.L: No._

_K: Well, I'm sure you'll find someone. Eventually SOMEONE is gonna have the patience to put up with your shit =)_

_S.L: I'd say the same to you but it looks like someone already is._

_K: ?_

Squall downed his shot and washed it down with a quick swig of beer. _The hell is this question mark? I looked right at you and he had his arm around you._ He knew that Kendra was not one to play dumb, she truly was that oblivious. It was one of the things about her that drove him crazy. He didn't feel like he should have to spell it out for someone on a daily.

_S.L: The guy you were with at The Red Scorpion, isn't he your boyfriend?_

_K: No…we're just seeing each other._

"Oh." He sipped on his beer as he stared down at her text. Just seeing each other she said. Squall could only blink for a moment. Sure, he couldn't tell if she was happy about it because she wasn't right in front of him, but she mentioned it pretty casually. And then, those damn dots. He remembered she always had a habit of using those damn ellipses whenever she was trying to figure out what to say or figure out how to word what she wanted to say. Sometimes, when she was angry at him and he would try to get her to tell him what was wrong, she would only respond with _"…"_

He couldn't think of anything else to say to her so he put the phone down on the counter and finished his beer. A few minutes ticked by before his phone started buzzing again.

_K: Are you mad?_

Squall looked over the words on the screen. He wasn't angry, not at all. He wasn't upset, he wasn't distraught, he felt…emotionless. So why did that drive him to order another shot? He tucked the phone away into his pocket when the pretty bartender filled his glass.

"Thanks," he said. He quickly tossed the shot glass back and slammed it down onto the counter, empty. "One more," he said. With a quick glance to the clock on the wall that glared brightly at him, he added, "Last one."

The bartender nodded. "You got it." She tilted the bottle in the air and filled the shot. She disappeared for a moment while Squall threw his head back and returned with his tab. With two fingers she plucked Squall's card out of his hand and ran it through. As she handed it back to him, she said, "Did you want to order anything from the kitchen? We're closing it down in about twenty minutes so we're taking last orders."

Squall thought for a moment but that last shot started to make his head turn fuzzy. _Shit._ "Yeah, I'm gonna smoke and then I'll be back in for a burger maybe."

"Sure thing. See you in a bit."

"Thanks." Squall slid off of the barstool, his hand calmly gripped the counter's edge to steady himself. Yes, a cigarette would clear his head, at least momentarily. He took a deep breath and cleared his throat as he wove through the maze of tables and chairs toward the doors.

Squall stumbled only briefly, quickly caught himself and leaned a hand against his car door. He released a breathy groan as he tried to steady the waves that began to rock within his skull. _Shit_, he mentally berated himself, lamenting his poor decision of taking that last shot. Or maybe it was the last two shots. Either way…

He straightened himself up and unlocked the passenger door. For a few moments his hands fumbled over the passenger seat as he searched for one of his many lighters that he _knew _he had in the car he just couldn't remember _where._ "Goddammit you asshole," he muttered. "I know you're in here." Of course, he only bought simple and plain black lighters, which of course melted in with the faded black—practically considered charcoal now—interior. He had before purchased those spiffy looking Bic lighters that had various designs on them in hopes that it would make searching for the lighters easier, however, designed lighters had a tendency to disappear a lot faster than plain ones.

Finally his fingers grazed over the surface of the Bic and he grasped it in triumph. "Yes!" he shouted, reeling back out of the car to light his cigarette. He had moved so quickly that he lost his footing, only for a moment, but it was long enough for him to nearly fall back onto the person walking along the sidewalk.

"Hey!"

Squall caught his balance and swung out an arm in hopes to keep the other person from falling. "Shit!" Instead of his fingers grasping around the person's arm, they tore a hole in the paper bag she was holding. His jaw clenched in horror as he watched a couple of boxes spill onto the sidewalk. "Shit—I am so sorry!" he said, dropping down to quickly gather up the items. "Sorry, really, I just lost my footing."

"Squall?"

He paused at the sound of his name. The voice was so damn familiar but with the alcohol and the flush of embarrassment diluting his brain he couldn't quite place it. He looked up from the ground, his eyes widening a fraction at the surprised face that stared back at him.

"Uh…hey, Rinoa," he said lamely.

Her lips curved into a smile as recognition filled her face. Then, her eyes narrowed as she took in his appearance. "Squall…" she began carefully. "Are you ok?"

Squall nodded and slowly stood to his feet so as to avoid the spins. "Yeah…yeah, just had one shot too many." He glanced down at the items he had picked up from the ground. "Uh, here." He handed them over, his eyes touching briefly over the little black box of tampons. "Sorry, didn't mean to rip your bag."

Rinoa shifted the bag in her arms so that the hole was closed up by her chest. "Thanks," she said, taking the small boxes and tossing them back into her bag. She glanced down at the car keys that were still placed within the car door. "You're not planning on driving, are you?"

"Huh?" Sqaull jerkily turned and looked at his car as if he had just remembered it was there. Then he remembered the cigarette that still dangled from his lips. "Oh, no," he said, raising the lighter back to his face. "I just came out for a smoke and then I was gonna go back in and order a burger to sober up." He stepped backward so his hip closed the open car door, the keys jangled, metal against metal, and he placed them back into his pocket. "What are you doing out here?"

She jerked her head towards the convenience store across the street on the corner. "I needed a few things." She could see the wheels turn in his head but not quite put it together. Rinoa offered him a smile and lightly chuckled. "I live in the apartments over there," she explained, shifting her arms again so she could point towards the complex that was up the street.

"Oh." Squall followed her direction and gave a slight nod. "So you just walked?"

"Well it's right down the street and I only needed a few things."

"Still, you shouldn't be walking the sidewalks at night."

Rinoa gave him a look and arched her brow in challenge. "Oh, really? Why? Because I'm a girl?"

He turned his eyes back towards her, glazed over with lids lowering. "No, because they need to fix the sidewalks. The concrete's all fucked up and the lighting's bad at night so you can't see where it's all uneven."

While Rinoa shaped her lips into a small 'o' so she could say, "What?" a short cry came from across the street. Both of them glanced over to see a figure pick himself off the ground.

Squall looked back at Rinoa with an amused and crooked grin on his lips. "See? The cracks aren't _everywhere,_ but they sneak up on you."

Rinoa laughed quietly and shrugged her shoulders. "Ok, well, I promise to walk carefully. Like I said, it's just up the street." She began to take a step and then looked back at Squall, almost as an afterthought. "I have coffee at the apartment," she offered. "It's free and it'll help you sober up."

He did love coffee. It was always a weakness to him. Squall lifted his chin in a nod of acceptance to the offer and turned to walk beside her.

"Plus, you can protect me from any of those nasty cracks."

"I'll do my best, but I can't promise anything." The toe of his boot scoffed over uneven concrete and he stumbled for only a moment before straightening himself out. "See?"

Rinoa laughed. "Right, I'm sure it's all the concrete's fault that you can't walk properly. It probably has absolutely nothing to do with the alcohol on your breath."

Squall blew a breath into his palm. "Is it that bad?"

"No," Rinoa giggled again. "But you are sweating, the alcohol's coming out of your pores."

Squall shot her a look of mock outrage. "Good god woman, are you going to complain the entire walk to your apartment? Because I can sober up in my car."

"Oh, but there's no coffee in your car."

He scowled. "You do make a valid point. The coffee better be worth it."

"It may not be considered café extraordinaire but I think it'll do." At the skeptical glare he sent her, she added, "If I throw in that I won't complain about how much you reek of alcohol can we call it even?"

Squall pretended to ponder over it for a few steps. "Yeah, sure," he said finally.

* * *

When they entered the apartment, Squall instantly started to glance around and take in the surroundings. For someone who had just moved in barely over a week prior, Rinoa had certainly made it very homey. The faded red couch already had two black throw pillows adorned with dark red bows strategically placed along the corners. The glass coffee table in the center of the living room was decorated with a simple black vase filled with blooming yellow daffodils. She didn't have a dining table, instead the area sectioned off to be a dining area had been filled with very full bookcases. He watched as Rinoa walked into the kitchen and set her grocery bag on the white countertop.

"Nice place," he said, pulling up to the counter and placing his hands along the edge.

"Thanks, I do love it." She busied herself with putting away her groceries and Squall made a move to help her. "Oh, no," she told him, holding up her hands to stop him. "No way drunky, you go sit your happy ass down on the couch. And take off your damn boots. Heathen."

Squall shook his head at her barking orders but did as he was told. He made his way over to the couch and eased back into the cushions as he listened to her set up the coffee machine.

After a few moments Rinoa set down the large and steaming black ceramic mug onto the glass table. "Did you want cream or sugar?"

"No, I take it black," he said. The look on Rinoa's face clearly told him that the very idea was completely foreign to her and he couldn't help but chuckle at the reaction. "When you have gigs that end at one and after parties that go until after the sun rises, and then work later on, you tend to skip the sugar and go straight for the caffeine."

Rinoa shook her head in horror as she made her way back to the kitchen to make herself a cup. "Yeah, no, I could never. I can honestly say that I've had _one_ cup of completely black coffee in my lifetime." She paused and thought for a moment. "Scratch that, one _sip_ of completely black coffee, and that was only because we were out of creamer and sugar." She finished stirring and slowly walked back to the couch. "I wanna say that was during my freshman year of college and the struggle was real. My roommate Dez and I were surviving off of ramen and bread for almost a week."

Squall laughed and reached for the mug. As he lifted it to his lips he looked at the design. Across the shiny black surface were bloody letters that spelled out REDRUM. He smiled and greedily sipped. "Stephen King fan I take it?"

"Possibly." She drank from her own mug that was adorned with an old fashioned cameo silhouette. "I have a tendency to collect books, mugs, and lenses," she said, setting the mug onto the glass.

Squall glanced over to her coffee, his brows frowning. "Shit, would you like some coffee with your creamer?" he commented, referring to how light her coffee was.

"I like it sweet," she admitted as she curled up onto the sofa chair that sat at an angle to the couch. "Don't judge."

"Roommate?" he asked, gesturing towards the double doors in the corner of the living room that were clearly too large for a coat closet.

"Hmm?" She followed his gaze and shook her head. "No, it's a den. Just a small room with no closet. I made it my office. It's where I've been editing all the photos. One day I plan on having a house with my own dark room so I can make my own prints."

"Nice." Squall sipped from his mug. "Thanks for bringing me back here," he said. "You didn't have to."

Rinoa shrugged. "It's not a big deal. I mean, you're not puking all over the place, so that's good. If you were I'd probably roll you out to the patio and leave you there overnight." She sent him a dazzling smile when he glared at her. "What happened? Why'd you get drunk—and by yourself?"

He responded with a sharp laugh and rubbed his hands over his face. "Getting drunk was not part of the plan," he groaned. "I had just got off work and wanted a beer—just _one_ beer—but then someone was texting me and then I started ordering my shots."

"How many shots did you have?"

"Only three, but one right after the other and I haven't eaten in a while so…yeah." Squall sighed and looked over at Rinoa. "I don't feel like I'm going to puke, so you don't have to worry about that."

"So who were you talking to? Were you fighting?"

"No, no fight." He inwardly winced as he realized he had yet to respond to Kendra after she had asked if he was mad at her. _Oops. _Squall let out a breath and curled his lip into an aggravated snarl. "It was Kendra."

Rinoa blinked. _Who?_ The name sounded familiar. She cocked her head as she thought. She was about to ask Squall who he was talking about but then she remembered the pretty brunette with the most magnificent smile. "Oh! The girl from the bar?"

Squall was staring ahead at the blank television screen in front of him while he sipped his coffee. He simply nodded and set the mug onto the table.

"Everything ok?"

He shrugged his shoulders. "Yeah, like I said it wasn't a fight. It wasn't much of anything."

"I thought you said she wasn't an ex-girlfriend?"

"She wasn't." Squall leaned back further into the cushions and adjusted his spine. "I mean, she's an ex…something."

"So then what is your story with Kendra? How is she affecting you this way?"

"She and I were seeing each other for a while. She wasn't my girlfriend and I wasn't her boyfriend. But I was seeing only her and she was seeing only me."

Rinoa blinked and tried to understand. "So…you guys were acting like boyfriend and girlfriend but you just weren't calling each other that?"

Squall narrowed his eyes and scrunched his nose at Rinoa's summarized description. While her description was somewhat accurate she had made it sound so juvenile. "Fuck. When you put it like that…"

She chuckled and stretched out her leg to nudge his thigh with her toe. "I wasn't trying to make it sound bad! I was just trying to understand your situation. So, you two were together but didn't have those labels." When Squall nodded Rinoa tapped her lip. "And I take it she wanted those labels."

"I never strayed. I never even looked at another girl. Yet she felt that the only way for us to be completely committed to each other was for us to have these labels." He raked his fingers through his hair as he remembered the hurt expression on Kendra's face the last time they had spoken as a couple. "Now she's "just seeing" this guy. She said it so casually—"Oh, I'm just seeing him," like it's no big deal and that she's perfectly happy with it. Which I think is fine, I want her to be happy. But when she and I were "just seeing" each other she was completely hell bent on trying to get some sort of label from me."

Rinoa nodded as she listened to him. "How long ago was all this?"

"Uh…a little under two years ago maybe?" Then he started to try and think. "No…more than a year, I know that. She hadn't even met Selphie yet."

Rinoa narrowed her eyes as she watched him try to figure it out. He didn't even know? How terrible. "Seriously?" She arched a very judgmental eyebrow. "You don't even know? How long were you with her?"

"Uh…seven months." He said it so matter-of-factly and then didn't edit it afterwards, so Rinoa assumed that to be true. "She and I wanted different things. She knew what she wanted, I knew what she wanted. I just didn't want to give it to her."

That made Rinoa raise her brows. "That's very big of you to say though," she said softly. "Most people would say something along the lines of "oh I _couldn't_ give it to her" or "I _couldn't _be what she wanted" or something. So you admitting that it was because you didn't _want_ to…it's very big of you."

Squall shrugged. "It's the truth. I enjoyed her company, I liked having her around, she could actually hold an intelligent conversation…I just did not see nor feel the need to put a label on it."

"I can understand that," Rinoa offered. "However, I can also understand her point of view. Sometimes it's nice to know where you stand with someone that you care so much about."

Kendra had said something similar to him when they decided to separate, though he couldn't remember her exact wording. "So I've heard. But I don't understand why a label is needed when where you stand is exactly where I want you—right beside me." He shifted against the couch and crossed his arms over his chest. "Whatever," he said. "It's all said and done."

"Well…"

He sat up to grab his mug and held up a hand to stop whatever was about to come from Rinoa's lips. "No," he told her, not rudely or with attitude, just…_no._ "I'm done with this conversation. Nothing is going to come out of it."

Rinoa nodded, he did have a point. He wasn't trying to get back with Kendra nor did it seem like she was trying to get back with him, nothing really would come out of continuing to talk about it. "Ok," she whispered. "Fair enough." She tapped her fingernails along her mug and glanced around. "Did you want to watch a movie?"

He welcomed the distraction. "Absolutely."

"Any preferences?" She got onto her knees and shuffled her way over to her small DVD rack. "I don't have a whole lot…and my taste in movies kind of goes in every direction possible." She turned and looked at him over her shoulder. "Did you want to pick one?"

"Sure." He crawled over to sit next to her and scanned over her collection. His lips curved in a grin as he saw that her DVD collection was incredibly mixed. She had horror, comedy that ranged from romantic/girly to raunchy as hell, Disney, action, and he was pretty sure he saw a porno in there too. His fingers plucked at a movie and he handed it to her. "This one," he said. "I haven't seen that in _years._"

Rinoa looked at him with surprised eyes. "Really? I had this on while I was packing up my things in Timber." It was Clue, one of the first movie renditions of a game, and it had been one of those movies she loved to have on ever since she was a kid. Plus, she loved Tim Curry.

* * *

Squall stretched and pulled his phone from his pants' pocket. When he glanced at the time displayed on the screen he made a grimace. "Shit," he muttered, causing Rinoa to turn her head towards him. "I should probably get going. It's after two."

"Already?" Rinoa lifted the remote and hit pause. On the screen, Tim Curry's character, Wadsworth, was chasing after Mr. Green with an imaginary candlestick. "But we were getting to the best part!"

He laughed but stood to his feet. "Yeah…I know." He did want to stay and finish the movie at least, but then the likelihood of him actually leaving would be depleted. He'd be too tired to walk to his car and _then_ drive home.

"Oh come on, you can at least finish the movie. There's only like ten minutes left," she said, practically echoing his thoughts.

"True, but then I'd probably never leave."

Rinoa shrugged her shoulders. "You don't have to leave," she told him. "You can crash on the couch until morning. Driving tired can be equivalent to driving drunk, you know."

He grinned as he listened to her argument. "It won't be that bad."

"I'm just looking out for you. Honestly, I think it'd be best if you stayed here. I'll even walk you to your car in the morning." When he made no move towards the couch or the door, instead just watched her, she added, "I'll even make you coffee again and maybe even breakfast."

Squall raised a brow. "We've come to bribery now, have we?"

"I do make a mean bowl of cereal," she said with a sweet smile. "And no one puts a bagel in the toaster and flips the switch quite like me. Just saying."

That caused him to laugh out loud before he could stop himself. "You sure do drive a hard bargain."

Rinoa uncurled her legs and stood up from the love seat. "You can't resist a comfy couch. And I will not take no for an answer. I'm just looking out for your best interests!" She disappeared down the hallway for a moment and came back with a blanket with a giant panda printed on it and solid dark blue pillow. "Come on," she urged, practically shoving him back onto the couch.

"Hey!" The back of his knees bumped the edge of the couch and he fell back onto the cushions. His eyes widened in disbelief as she started to drape the blanket over him and tried to push him into a laying position.

"It's ok, I promise I won't take advantage of you while you sleep," Rinoa said with a sarcastic grin. "Although I will make you finish watching Clue with me." She tucked the pillow beneath his head and went back to her chair. She pressed play and looked back over to Squall and giggled at the sight of him wrapped up like a burrito in a panda-printed blanket. "You look absolutely adorable," she said. A thought entered her mind and she started to reach for her purse.

"If you take a picture I am walking out right now."

Rinoa sank back into her seat with a pout but retracted her arms. "You're no fun."


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N: Hello, thank you for the kind reviews, I'm glad you are enjoying it thus far! =)**

* * *

The strong and seductive aroma of coffee greeted him like a lover. He could feel his lips turn up into a small and lazy smile. Slowly he opened his eyes. The first thing he saw was Rinoa's face. The sun was bright, glowing through her cream colored curtains so that it bordered the back of her head like a warm halo. She had her fingers outstretched, as if to poke him, but she was paused in her actions as she was looking at her phone. Apparently what she saw was not held in her highest regard as she twisted her lips into an unimpressed pout. She turned away from the phone and looked down at him. She smiled when she saw that he was starting to wake up. "Good morning sunshine."

He chuckled, a thick and throaty sound, and rubbed his eyes with his palms. "Morning angel," he said lowly. Clearing his throat, he sat up fully. "Huh?" he asked when he noticed that Rinoa was arching an eyebrow at him in suspicion.

"Angel, huh?" she said, her lips pursed.

"Oh, I'm sorry, I thought we had moved onto the nickname bit," he responded, referring to her 'sunshine' comment.

Rinoa made a noise of indifference and picked up the mug she had set up for him. "Your coffee, sir, black as death and tastes just how it sounds."

"Thanks." As he sipped he fumbled for his phone. His brows furrowed as he looked at the time. 9:06. _Are you fucking kidding me? _he grumbled. Usually Saturday was his day to sleep in and he was never up and out of bed before twelve if he could help it. He took another look at Rinoa and took note of her put together appearance. She had already showered—he could smell the tangy and inviting scent of her soap—had already dressed, and already had some makeup on. Her hair was still damp, the top half sectioned off with a clip. "Not to be an ungrateful houseguest, but…"

Rinoa was looking at her phone again. She turned her attention back to Squall. "Hmm? Oh!" She sent him a dazzling yet very guilt-infused smile. "Yeah, sorry for the early awakening…but my dad's on his way here."

That sent a wave of alarm through Squall. "Wait…what?"

"Well not like _now._ He called me like forty minutes ago and asked to take me out to brunch. He said he'd be here a little after ten." She looked over to her phone. "I figured that'd give you enough time to enjoy some coffee before I kicked your ass out."

Squall nodded. "Thanks for giving me ample time."

"Sure. It's just since I don't have my car yet he's coming here to pick me up and we're going to get my car later. He hasn't seen the place all spruced up yet so I know he's going to want to come in. And…" She gestured to him. "Well, quite frankly if he sees you he's just going to be asking a lot of questions that have no answers."

Squall held up his hand and slowly stood to his feet as he continually rubbed his eyes. "No, no, I get it."

Rinoa wet her lips as she watched him stand. The movement was so casual, so lazy, so without meaning yet the small groans that escaped from him as he stretched elicited such feelings from her. For a brief moment she caught the sight of blood red underwear peeking over the tops of his low slung dark jeans. _Pervert,_ she mentally chided herself. "You don't need to rush out," she insisted. "Please wake up first. Like I said, driving tired is equal to driving drunk."

He returned her comments with a slow grin. "Fifteen minutes and I'll be out of your hair." He turned towards the hallway for a moment and looked back over to her. "Bathroom?" He wasn't sure if the layout of her apartment was set up so that the bathroom was in her room or completely separate.

Rinoa nodded and pointed down the hallway. "Door on the left."

"Thanks."

She watched him walk off and shook her head. He was so talkative last night, now he was back to his quick little sentences and one word questions or responses. Apparently the only way to get him to talk was to get him drunk. Her phone beeped and she looked at the screen.

_F.C: How does The Phoenix Diner sound for brunch?_

Rinoa twisted her lips. Caraway had been texting her different locations for the past twenty minutes. She had hesitated over each one. After a few moments of going onto the restaurant's menu through her phone, she thought it would be alright.

_R.H: Yeah that sounds good. See you in a few?_

_F.C: Have to fill up the car first. Should be there around 10:15 the latest._

_R.H: Okie dokie._

Just a little over an hour. Even though she knew her apartment was spotless since she had just moved in, she still needed time to go through it to make sure it would be considered up to par. Even though she rebelled against her father and didn't care much for his opinion, he was still her father. She still lived by his rules (albeit bent and with all the found loopholes) and still wanted to please him.

Squall emerged from the hallway and Rinoa lifted her head. "You hungry? I can make you a bagel or something," she offered, already walking into the kitchen. While she waited for his response she made a cup of coffee for herself.

He simply shook his head and scooped up his coffee. "It's all good. I'll pick something up on my way home."

"Do you live far?"

"About twenty minutes." He threw his head back and greedily chugged the rest of his mug. Almost immediately he regretted it. His throat burned and he thickly swallowed the pained grunt that wanted to rise up through his vocal chords. It wasn't his proudest moment, but he wanted to hurry up and get out of there. The sooner he left the sooner he could crawl into his own bed and hopefully pass out again. He figured it would probably be a lost cause, but it never hurt to try. Squall approached the kitchen and reached past Rinoa to place his mug into the sink. "Thanks again for letting me crash here," he began. "You really didn't have to do that."

Rinoa was about to turn towards him to speak when he suddenly ducked out of the kitchen, promptly giving her his back. Her brow arched in confusion but she brushed it off. "Anytime," she said.

Squall was already heading towards the door. He patted himself down: keys, wallet, phone, cigarettes…check. He nodded and looked back over to Rinoa who was still standing by the sink. "Later," he gave a slight salute to her and turned the doorknob.

"Walk safe," she called out to him.

* * *

Squall was already out the door. He rubbed his eyes with his knuckles and winced at the sharp sunlight that glared down at him. With a sigh he placed a cigarette between his lips, bent his head to light it, and made his way down the steps.

His lips twitched as he thought about Rinoa standing by the sink. He was standing close enough to her that he could smell her shampoo—it was something sweet and almost citrusy—he could tell that her soap was chosen specifically to complement it, but mostly, he was able to see down her shirt. A short laugh caught in his throat and he quickly exhaled.

_Nearly twenty-six and yet still peeking at cleavage like a twelve year old,_ he mentally berated himself. That was the thing about breasts, no matter the age, men will always look. Rinoa's were small but he deduced that they would definitely be a nice and plush handful. Her cleavage was not a straight line some women, instead her breasts had a slight valley between them and he had even noticed a small beauty mark right above her left breast. When he saw that her head was turning he had to quickly spin away from her.

Before long he came to his Jeep. He unlocked the door and slid behind the wheel. Did he really spend that whole ten minute walk analyzing the shape and size of Rinoa's breasts? Yes. Yes he did. He was a man; he liked tits.

After turning the keys into the ignition Squall rubbed his fingers all over his face as he tried to wake up. The sun was too bright, the air felt too warm…was it really only April? He pulled his sunglasses from his center console and looked up at the soft top of his Jeep. He reached up and pulled the latches and slid the levers into place so the front half of the soft top was folded back, allowing in the air. He loved his Jeep. He bought the two-door Jeep Wrangler specifically for the soft top. After all, it was almost like an unspoken rule that when living not too far from the coast it would be wise to own a vehicle where the top could come down. He didn't go to the beach as much as he had used to like when he lived in Balamb, he twisted his lips as he thought that he should rectify that. While he thought about it, he plugged his phone into the cable of his car to charge.

With a groan he stretched his arms behind him. Glancing behind him to check the traffic, he slid on his sunglasses and pulled his car into drive. _Home,_ he thought. _Home and then hopefully a nap._

That wishful thinking, however, was short-lived. His phone started ringing. With the phone still plugged into the car, the voice came through the stereo speakers when he answered.

"Hey," Irvine said. "Head over to my place so we can discuss the upcoming show."

"It's fucking nine-thirty!" Squall protested.

"It is?" A small pause. "Oh. Shit."

Squall sighed but figured he might as well head over, he was already up anyway. "Fine. Why are you up so early?"

"Selphie just left a few minutes ago. She's teaching a class at ten."

Squall nodded. Whenever Selphie would leave Irvine's house in the morning he never was able to go back to sleep after she left. Despite his many denials, he would follow her around the apartment like a little loyal puppy following and adoring her every move. He would make coffee with her, drink coffee with her, make her breakfast, walk her to her car…and then when she would be gone it was like he didn't know what to do with the rest of his day. "Alright, I'm on my way. I'm gonna stop at the gas station, you want anything?"

"Nah, I'm good. See you soon."

Squall hung up. Barely even a heartbeat later his phone rang again. "Yes?" Squall asked.

"Hold the fuck up," Irvine muttered, and Squall could practically visualize the knitting frown of Irvine's eyebrows. "What are _you_ doing up? It's Saturday."

_Shit. _It was common knowledge within the whole group that Saturday was Squall's only day to sleep in and that he took it very seriously, and he was not about to tell Irvine that he had crashed at Rinoa's place. "Hungover," he answered.

"Ah. Don't get the gas station coffee," Irvine said. "I'll make a new pot."

Silently Squall thanked whatever god made Irvine not the brightest star that he could have been. "Thanks."

* * *

When Squall arrived at Irvine's apartment he hastily took hold of the steaming mug the cowboy had held out for him. "Thank you," he managed to utter before bringing the mug to his lips and throwing his head back.

"Anytime," Irvine said. He opened up his laptop and motioned for Squall to look at something. "Cid wants to video chat with us in a minute."

Squall lowered the half-empty mug and arched a brow. "Cid? Uh…isn't he on vacation?"

"Yeah but Quistis mentioned the photograph that Rinoa put up to Edea yesterday so…"

Squall nodded. "Got it." Word traveled fast. Edea had been the old bar manager at The Red Scorpion and she and Quistis hit it off very well. The two had a very close relationship, not quite mother-daughter but more than an older sister and younger sister bond. And since Edea was married to Cid, Absolute Lore's manager, they shared _everything._

The bathroom door opened and Zell suddenly emerged from the hallway.

"What are you doing here?"

Zell shrugged and gestured towards Irvine. "I was finishing my run when Irvine called me to see if I could come over for some video chat with Cid. Since I was only around the corner it didn't take me long."

"Yeah, now we're just waiting for Quistis," added Irvine. "She should be here in a few minutes."

Squall grimaced. Apparently he was the only one who relished sleeping in. While he enjoyed going to the gym with Zell and partaking in cross country running from time to time, he never could get into running first thing in the morning.

Twenty minutes later Quistis knocked on the door. Zell let her in and commented on her large and dark sunglasses. "Shut up," she grumbled. Immediately she zeroed in on the percolating coffee machine and searched for the largest mug.

A _beep_ came from Irvine's laptop and he turned on the video conference call. "Hey Cid," he said.

"Hey kiddos!" The man on the screen had shaggy grey-streaked brown hair that cupped around his ears. His eyes were bright and crinkled as he produced a wide smile. A small hint of a sunburn bloomed just beneath his wide-rimmed glasses. "How is my favorite band doing?"

"We're great but why the hell did you wanna talk to us so goddamn early?" Quistis demanded, slumping her body over the countertop as she filled the video screen. Her sunglasses remained on her face and she angrily pointed at the camera. "Edea!" she shouted. "I hate your husband—_hate him!_"

A silky chuckle came from the other side and soon the man on the screen was joined by a woman with long black hair that fell past her waist. She smiled and blew a kiss into the webcam. "But we love you children so much!"

Irvine playfully shoved Quistis aside so she fell into Squall. "Go put her on the couch or something," he said.

Quistis growled and harmlessly swiped her nails at Irvine's shoulder. "No," she muttered while Squall practically threw her over his shoulder. "I hate mornings," she grumbled. "I hate Irvine's couch too, who the fuck knows what has gone on on this icky thing."

"Too bad," Squall said, dropping her onto the leather despite her protests. He came back over to the laptop and stared straight into the webcam. "Quistis is out of order right now, she's slightly indisposed."

Edea chuckled again, a throaty and rumbling sound. "It's those Friday nights," she said. "The Red Scorpion is brutal."

"So what'd you want to talk to us about?" Zell asked as he had his head shoved into Irvine's refrigerator.

"Well, Quistis mentioned that you guys hired a photographer," Edea began.

"Yes!" Cid joined. "We looked at that teaser photograph she put up—_very_ talented!"

"Is she going to put up the rest of the photos she took?"

Irvine nodded at Edea. "Yeah she just needs to edit them."

Edea tapped her fingertips together and smiled at the man beside her. "Oh, how _wonderful_."

Cid nodded widely. "Yes, yes it is! So, kiddos, your next show is coming up in one week. Have you got your set list ready?"

"That we do," assured Zell.

"Great!" Cid looked down for a moment as he scanned some piece of notebook paper. "Now…where did I…?" he muttered to himself.

Edea watched his movements. She frowned and pointed a finger at the piece of paper. "Didn't you write it on the other one?"

"No, no, I'm sure I wrote it on this one…"

The two began a quiet fit of bickering while they tried to figure out what was written on which paper. The three young men on the other side just silently sighed as they waited for the two to figure themselves out. Squall tapped his fingers rhythmically along the countertop.

"Squall, stop it—you'll just get me more flustered!" Cid mumbled. "Ah!" He found what he was looking for and held up the paper in victory. "Alright, so, what I wanted to talk to you kiddos about is that there is going to be a summer tour with a few bands you have played with in the past."

Quistis popped her head up from the couch. "You'll have to be a bit more specific," she called. "We've played with quite a bit during the last two years."

Cid nodded. "Yes, yes, I know….the tour list isn't finalized yet, but I recognized a few names on there. But, more importantly, the tour would start in June and run into the end of August."

"How many shows?" asked Squall.

"Uh…let's see, twenty-four."

Zell thought for a moment. "I take it there's a lot of traveling involved."

"Yes, you'll be looping around the country."

Irvine nodded. "I'm all for it. Two months away? Doable."

"Great! I wanted to run it by you guys before I check all the numbers and budgets to make sure that we _can_ tour." Cid tucked away his notes and waved at the screen. "Edea and I will be back in time for your show at Strange Vision next Saturday."

"I want to meet this girl!" Edea said abruptly, practically shoving her husband aside. "Quistis tells me that she is just _lovely._"

Squall began to edge towards the 'end call' button. "You'll meet her soon enough," he said. "Now enjoy your damn cruise!" He pressed the button and closed Irvine's laptop. He looked over to his bandmates. "Our first tour?"

Zell couldn't contain his excitement. "Man…that would be fucking awesome!"

"Don't get too excited," said Irvine. "We need to find out who we're touring with and if we can even _afford_ to tour. We haven't made that much money in the last year." He raised his hands to the sounds of Quistis and Zell whining. "Now, I'm not trying to be a killjoy, I'm just trying to be realistic. I mean…" His grin widened and he let out an enthusiastic breath. "This sounds _amazing_ and I hope it works out. Fuck, can you imagine?"

"He's got a point," Squall agreed. "Plus, we have to let our work know."

* * *

A few hours later Rinoa was behind the wheel of her own car. She snuggled her rear into the driver's seat and happily buckled herself in. Oh how she missed her car. She reached forward and fumbled with all the settings and controls until it was customized to her fit. She was about to drive off when she heard her phone beep. She scooped up the contraption and smiled when she saw that it was Selphie.

_S.T: Hey! I'm going on lunch in like forty minutes, wanna meet up?_

_R.H: Sure! I'm over by the Galadian Auto Mall. I had to pick up my car._

_S.T: Perfect! My work isn't too far from there._

_R.H: Yay! Be there soon!_

* * *

Rinoa and Selphie went to a small deli that was around the corner from the school that Selphie worked at. Rinoa was listening to Selphie talk about the class she was just assisting. "So, it's for all ages?" Rinoa asked.

"Well, in the mornings it's mostly senior citizens," Selphie answered. "From ten to one-thirty it's mostly older groups and then the young ones, like ages nine to fourteen, come in after three-thirty."

"Oh! Well that sounds like fun."

Selphie laughed. "Yeah, most of the kids are great. Though you do get a few boys that try to get away with sculpting a penis into everything."

Rinoa nearly spat out her water. "Oh…boys and their dicks."

"Yeah, so you said you were at brunch with your dad? How did that go?"

Rinoa shrugged. "Not too bad, I guess." She glanced down at the tattooed feathers along the backs of her arms. "He's not too crazy about the ink, I can tell you that much." She sent Selphie a devil-may-care grin.

"Oh, he'll get over it!" Selphie giggled.

The waitress approached them and took their orders. "Oh, and can I get a coffee please? With an extra shot of espresso?" Rinoa begged.

Selphie arched a brow. "Everything ok?"

Rinoa nodded and ran her fingers through her hair. "Yeah, just didn't get much sleep last night and then Caraway called me at like the butt-crack of dawn. So I'm like _drained._" Even after she and Squall had said goodnight to each other, Rinoa was not able to fall asleep immediately. She had lain in bed with her blankets twisted around her like a ribbon as she tossed and turned to try and get comfortable. She hadn't even asked how he had slept during the night.

"Why couldn't you sleep?" Selphie asked over the rim of her glass.

"Well…" Rinoa grimaced as she mentally argued with herself on whether or not she should tell Selphie the story of last night. It was a harmless night, after all, nothing happened, but she did let a stranger sleep on her couch. And it didn't matter how gorgeous said stranger was, she still knew nothing about him other than he was a drummer who like to drink, smoke cigarettes, and avoid commitment titles. Oh, but he did like Tim Curry movies, so that was a plus. "I had an unexpected visitor."

The waitress came back with their sandwiches and Rinoa's coffee, to which she happily sucked down. Selphie narrowed her eyes but quietly chewed on her sandwich while she waited for Rinoa to continue. An unexpected visitor could have so many meanings. It could range from an animal to her period to…a man? "Rinoa!" Selphie hissed, snagging the other woman's attention. "What happened?"

Rinoa set down her mug and sighed. "I ran into Squall outside that bar around the corner from my apartment."

Selphie dropped her sandwich and her eyes shot open. "You didn't!"

"Didn't what?" Rinoa winced and tried to lean back further against the back of her chair. "Holy shit please don't give me that look, it's scary. I don't like it. Bring back happy-faced-Selphie, I like her way more."

Selphie tapped a finger on the table as she tried to form her thoughts into comprehensible words. "You and Squall…? Did you guys…?"

Rinoa arched a brow as she tried to follow Selphie's scattered thoughts. "Did we…? Oh! No! Nooooo, no, no, no," she urged. "No, not at all. He was just really drunk and I made him some coffee and he crashed at my place. I kicked him out early this morning because Caraway was on his way over to come get me."

That brought Selphie to a round of gleeful laughter. She could just imagine Rinoa trying to wake up Squall. Selphie had witnessed Irvine attempt that feat a small number of times. It was like poking a sleeping wolf with a stick. "Wow, so how was hanging out with Squall last night?"

"Eh." Rinoa simply shrugged. "I mean, it's not like I have much to go on. I only hung out with him at the studio and then at The Red Scorpion. This was really the only time I hung out with him one on one." She pursed her lips as she thought about last night. "He's definitely more talkative when he's drunk. He barely spoke this morning."

Selphie chuckled and covered her mouth while she chewed. "Oh yeah, he's really not a morning person. I mean, he's a man of very few words to begin with, but during the morning? Good luck trying to get a conversation going." She swallowed a few sips of her water. "What'd you guys talk about when he was drunk?"

"Mostly about _why_ he got drunk. That girl at the bar who came to our table?"

Selphie paused for a moment as she thought back. "Oh yeah, the brunette…Kendall?"

"Kendra. Yeah, I guess they had a thing and it got messy and then they haven't spoken for a while but then I guess she was texting him earlier yesterday."

"Ew, fun stuff."

Rinoa sighed. "Yeah, that was it mostly. Then we watched _Clue._"

"Ohmygod," Selphie whispered. "I fucking love that movie. Pure genius."

"Right?"

Selphie chewed for a moment and waited for Rinoa to finish her own meal. "So nothing happened?"

Rinoa brushed the crumbs from her mouth and tilted her head. "What would have happened?" she asked.

"Oh…I don't know," Selphie shrugged. "A handsome guy on your couch…?"

Rinoa released a laugh and reached for the remnants of her coffee. "Yes, my love, I did have a handsome guy on my couch, that is not brand new information." She shook her head and sighed. "Oh, Selphie, what am I going to do with you?"

"What?" Selphie squealed. "Squall is _hot_. You cannot deny that."

Rinoa lowered her mug. "Selphie! You are a taken woman!"

"Yeah but I'm not a _blind_ woman," she disputed. "You think that just because Irvine holds my heart means that I'm not going to notice the opposite sex? Like at all? Come on, you really think Irvine has stopped noticing any of Absolute Lore's groupies?" Selphie pursed her lips as she thought. "Or boobies?"

"Well…" Rinoa had to shrug at that. "What guy can ignore boobs?"

* * *

It was a little after three when Irvine received a phone call from Selphie. She had just finished up setting up the tables for the incoming next class and she was able to take a quick break. "Hey, you wanna hear something funny?" she began.

Irvine paused and narrowed his eyes. This sounded like a trick. "Uh…maybe?"

"So I was just talking to Rinoa earlier…"

Irvine hated it when she dragged out her sentences and left big gaping pauses between her sentences. It was like she was doing to give him a chance to interject with his own information. When it came to gossip, Selphie was normally the first one to hear it, but somehow she acted like Irvine would know something long before she would. "Uh huh…" he said, waiting for her to continue.

"She told me that she picked up Squall from a bar last night?"

Irvine turned to look at Squall who was outside on the patio smoking. "Huh?" Irvine knew that Squall had been drinking last night, Squall had told him so this morning. However…

"Yeah," Selphie continued. "Apparently he was really drunk and had to stay at her place."

Irvine silently groaned and immediately began to rub his temple to soothe the headache he knew was coming. "Oh really," he muttered. _That's why he was up so damn early,_ he deduced. _That motherfucker. _"What did he do that I have to make him apologize for?"

Selphie laughed. "Honestly I don't think he did anything. I just thought it was funny that of all the drunk asses Rinoa had to run into last night it had to be our very own Squall."

"Uh-huh…" The slider glass door opened and Irvine saw Squall re-enter the apartment. "Babe, let me call you back. Oh wait—are you coming back over later? I might have some news for you."

"News? I love news!"

"Awesome, we'll talk later." He hung up and waited for Squall to lean against the counter. Irvine spun around in his chair to face the other man, his expression suddenly turning grim. "Dude." He kicked out a foot so it thudded against Squall's calf. "You spent the night at Rinoa's?" he asked, completely ignoring the grunt of pain that came from the other man.

"What the—how did—?" Then Squall realized Irvine had been on the phone with Selphie. _Women,_ he thought angrily. "Nothing happened!" he growled, massaging his assaulted calf. "Fuck, when the hell are you going to get rid of those steel-toed boots?"

Irvine's eyes instantly flared into a warning and he pointed a finger at Squall. "I fucking swear…you do realize that if you fuck anything up with this girl _I _will never hear the end of it from Selphie?"

Squall sighed. "I think you should be more concerned with your _own_ relationship."

Irvine frowned. "What? There's nothing wrong with my relationship."

"Exactly," Squall snarled. "You should be focused on keeping it that way." Now that his calf was no longer throbbing from Irvine's attack, Squall leaned back into his chair. "Look, I had a few drinks at Motley's and she happened to walk by me when I was outside. She offered to make me coffee at her place to sober me up."

"And?" Irvine pressed, his eyes narrowing as he tried to pick up any hints of innuendos within Squall's words.

Squall simply blinked at him for a moment, annoyed at the accusation. "And we watched _Clue_," he said tersely. "She slept in her own room and I slept on the couch. _Nothing_ happened."

Irvine crossed his arms and stared even harder. "You're telling me that you spent the night on the couch while the beautiful, single, fine-ass woman slept in her _bed?_"

"The fuck? First you get pissed because you _don't_ want me sleeping with her and then you start questioning why I _didn't?_ Sorry to disappoint you Irvine, but the topic never came up." His shoulders dropped in annoyance when he noticed that the cowboy's relentless glare would not cease. "Seriously, drop it."

Irvine himself wasn't even sure how he was able to smother the menacing chuckle that tried to escape from him, but seeing the infamously stone-faced Squall Leonhart become all agitated and flustered over the subject of a girl was simply a sight to behold. "Hey, I mean _I_ wouldn't blame you, she is _banging._ Did you see her ass in those leggings when we went to the Scorpion?" Irvine let out a theatric whistle.

_Yes, yes I did…_ Before he could stop himself, Squall slowly nodded in agreement to Irvine's comment. It was only two nods before he realized his movements. He stilled. A glance out of the corner of his eyes told him that Irvine had been watching him like a hawk. The provoking smirk on the cowboy's face was evidence enough that the cowboy had set Squall up with that comment.

Squall's lips pressed together as he repressed the urge to violently wipe that smug grin off Irvine's face.

_Shit…_


	6. Chapter 6

It took a few days to get everyone's schedule together, but they all had managed to make some time for a small photoshoot. Rinoa had even found an abandoned orphanage that overlooked the beach. It had a dilapidated walkway that curved down the hill that led to a small tide pool. She had driven to it the day before and scouted the area to determine exactly where she wanted to shoot.

They all met up at the studio. Rinoa parked her ice blue Nissan Cube and smiled at Zell who greeted her by opening the car door.

"Nice car," he said. "It's cute."

"Thanks! I love my car." Rinoa closed the door behind her and locked it. "Are we the first ones here?"

Zell nodded and gestured for her to join him in the studio. "Yeah, Quistis just texted me and said she was around the corner. So she should be here any minute." He scooped up the red gym bag he'd had leaning against the door and slung it over his shoulder. "I know you said to bring some clothes but I wasn't sure what everyone else was wearing." He unlocked the studio and led her inside. He set the gym bag onto the couch and unzipped it. "I brought a few things."

"Well I want you guys to be comfortable."

Squall walked through the door and lifted his chin in acknowledgement to the two. Rinoa felt her lips part just a breath when she took in the sight of him. The sleeveless dark gray shirt he wore clung to him deliciously and the silver trim along the collar looked like thorny branches. Around his neck was a thick chain that Rinoa had seen before, but it was always hidden beneath his shirts. Now it was exposed and she could see the pendant that rested against his chest—the silhouette of a roaring lion. His black leather pants were fitted but loose enough to allow breathable and comfortable movement. The studded motorcycle boots and his drummer's gloves completed the look.

_Oh…me likey,_ Rinoa thought.

"I kinda figured you'd wear that," Zell was saying.

Squall only gave him a smirk and headed towards his kit. He sat upon his throne and picked up his sticks, twirling them effortlessly between his fingers. "Yeah, I know," he said.

"Do you wear it often?" Rinoa asked, raising her camera and snapping a few shots of Squall coiling the drumsticks in the air. She turned to Zell and helped him go through the clothes that he had brought.

"It's one of my favorite shirts," Squall answered.

Zell nodded and picked up a shirt. "He's got like five others that look just like it," he told Rinoa. "All different colors and sleeve lengths."

Rinoa chuckled. She couldn't blame Squall, it looked alluring on him. If she found a shirt that looked that great on her she would most definitely have bought it in all the colors that it came in. In fact, she actually had a few cardigans that were the exact same style but in different colors. "Well, you look great," she said to Squall. Then she turned back to Zell. "Now let's see if we can find something for you…because you are not wearing _that,_" she said, referring to the green basketball shorts and plain white undershirt he wore.

"Knock, knock," came a voice from the doorway. Quistis stepped inside with a small pink backpack strapped over her shoulders. "Ugh, I was stuck at that red light on Central Parkway _forever_." Immediately she zeroed in on Zell. "Not sure what to wear?" she asked.

He nodded. "I brought a few things but I just don't know what kind of look we're going for…"

Quistis came over and glanced at the clothes Rinoa had spread out on the table. "Are we bringing our instruments?"

"Well, I thought about that," Rinoa began. "But how is Squall going to bring his?"

Squall lifted his gaze and slowly shook his head, his eyes darkening at the thought. There was no way he was willing to break down his kit, pack it up into Irvine's Pathfinder, set it all up at the shoot location, and then break it all down again. "Not happening."

Rinoa shot him a look. "Yes, _dear_, I know, which is why I didn't plan on bringing instruments. I think that this shoot will be just you guys and then we'll have another shoot with your instruments before the show on Saturday—if we have time, of course, since it's only three days away."

"Zell, wear this." Quistis held up a tight black V-neck shirt and a red leather jacket. After rummaging through the gym bag for a moment longer, she pulled out Zell's faded and ripped black slacks. "And these."

"Oh, those weren't supposed to be in there," Zell sighed. "I meant to grab a different pair."

Quistis shrugged. "I think it'll look great anyway," she promised. "I'm gonna go change." She disappeared into the bathroom just as Selphie and Irvine arrived.

"Looking good, Squall!" Selphie beamed.

He nodded at her and rhythmically tapped the ends of his drumsticks along the cymbal. "Irvine, you forgot your shirt."

Irvine simply grinned and casually ran his palms over the smooth leather surface of the vest that encased his bare torso. His long hair was down—Selphie had insisted—and the coppery waves hung loosely over his shoulders. "I let the little lady dress me," he said, his eyebrows arching teasingly.

"What can I say? I like him baring a little skin." Selphie scraped her nails over his sternum and sent a wink to Rinoa.

"So I take it you picked out his jeans too?" Rinoa asked, pointing at the jeans that hung low on Irvine's hips, exposing his sharp pelvic bones. "Please tell me you're wearing underwear," she said, instantly grimacing when he responded with a wicked smirk.

Selphie giggled and turned to face Quistis who stepped out the restroom. "Heeeeeeeey!" she called, shaking her hips in a little dance.

Rinoa stared in awe at Quistis' outfit. The blonde emerged from the other room in shiny black shorts that stopped right at the tops of her thighs. Her legs were encased in opaque black tights that reached to mid-thigh, held in place by studded, pink leather garters with a metal heart in the middle. Her top was simple, a flowy white long sleeved blouse that hung off the curves of her slender shoulders. She wore tall pink converse sneakers that zipped up her calves. As she walked she fussed with the messy bun that sat atop her head. "How do I look?" she asked.

"All I'm going to say is if I swung that way…" Rinoa clicked her tongue and arched her brows suggestively, earning a roar of laughter from Quistis.

Selphie turned to Rinoa with her mouth open in a mock gasp. "You mean you _don't?_" she cried, her bottom lip quivering as she theatrically pouted. "But…"

"Oh, shut up!" Rinoa playfully kicked out a foot into Selphie's ass. "Zell you almost ready?"

Zell was finishing up tying his boots. "Coming!"

Rinoa squealed as she looked at the people around her. "You guys look _amazing_ I am so excited!" She pulled out her phone and switched to the front facing camera. "Get over here bitches!"

Quistis and Selphie crouched down onto their knees in front of Rinoa while Irvine and Zell stood behind her, bending at the knees so that their faces fit on the phone's screen. Squall stood behind her and placed a hand on Zell's shoulder to keep himself balanced.

Rinoa stood on tip-toe and extended her arm as far as it would go. To be safe, she just started clicking away even though they were all on the verge of laughter. She lost her balance for a moment, and Squall's hand slapped onto her hip, his fingers digging into her jean shorts to keep her in place. For a moment his fingertips brushed over her bare thigh. "Sorry," he mumbled.

"You're fine," she whispered back with giggle. "Say cheese!" She snapped a few more and then they all separated. "Alright, we ready to go?"

"I think we'll be able to just take two cars," noted Irvine. "The location's not too far, and since it's only Wednesday the traffic shouldn't be too bad."

"You can ride with us!" Selphie said to Rinoa and Quistis, motioning towards Irvine's Nissan Pathfinder. "There's plenty of room."

"No smoking though," Irvine warned, pointing directly to Quistis.

"You can ride with me," Squall offered.

Quistis chuckled. "My smoking buddy!"

"No!" Rinoa cried, immediately throwing her arms around Quistis' waist. "I want to take some candid shots of this beauty in the car. Right now she's mine, you can't have her!"

The blonde laughed and snaked her arms around Rinoa's waist. "I think I'm falling in love with this girl!" she said, already pulling Rinoa outside the studio. "Squall bring some waters from the fridge before you lock up!"

"Alright, we ready?" Irvine asked.

"Yeah, just let me get a few things from my car." She unlocked the back and pulled out two umbrella reflectors. Selphie came up behind her to take one of the reflectors and carefully brought it to Irvine's SUV.

With Zell in Squall's car and all the ladies in Irvine's, they were on their way.

While in the backseat, Rinoa quickly updated her photography page.

_Rinoa Heartilly_

_Just now._

**_About to have a photography session with the most talented band I've met! I hope you're ready for ALofficial Galbadia!_**

She posted the photo she had just taken, turning the screen towards Quistis so she could see. The two giggled as they looked at the faces. "What the hell kind of face is Zell making?" Quistis laughed.

"Selphie looks _really_ excited," Rinoa said, grinning at the giant eyes that Selphie was making.

"Shit, do I look terrible in it? You didn't tag me did you?" Selphie's phone beeped. "Bitch! You did!"

* * *

"How'd you find this place?" Zell asked.

Squall came up from behind Rinoa and took hold of the remaining umbrella reflector. He followed Rinoa's direction of where she had wanted him to put it and he dutifully placed it.

"Honestly, I just found out about it from Hidden Galbadia's web page. They always post about the non-famous spots of Galbadia that deserve a little extra love." Rinoa adjusted the first reflector and stepped backwards as she visualized where it would be aiming. "They posted this about a month ago, before I moved back, and even then I knew it would be an amazing photoshoot location."

"It's beautiful," Quistis murmured, her eyes scanning over the old and chipped stone wall that had caved into itself, unwittingly creating a sturdy mountain of stone bricks. She carefully stepped onto a brick and balanced herself with her arms straight out at her sides.

Rinoa glanced up and hurried for her camera. She snapped away, capturing a few shots of Quistis teetering along the broken stones. "Yeah," Rinoa agreed. "Apparently it had been an orphanage once upon a time." She looked over to where Quistis stood atop the rubble. "Ok…" She sucked on her bottom lip and approached Squall. "Go crouch on the floor right in front of where Quistis is standing. Irvine….stand over here." She walked over to some of the fallen stones behind where she had Irvine post himself. "Selphie can you help me?" The two girls bent down and pulled a large slab of broken concrete so that it was slanted and faced where Rinoa was going to be shooting from. "Zell come stand on this," she said, stepping on the slab herself to make sure that it was sturdy.

She stepped backward and clicked away with each step, capturing the four glancing around or staring right at her as they awaited direction. "Ok, now just stare straight at me," she ordered. "Irvine, put your hands in your front pockets and turn your chin slightly to your left…ok, now tilt it and look upwards." Her finger continued to click away as her eyes touched onto each face. Her lips began to curve into a smile as Zell slowly started moving, his jaws opening up into a silent scream as he held up his fists as if he were about to attack. "Love it!"

That was the thing some people didn't quite understand about modeling and photography. It wasn't enough to just stand there and look pretty. You had to play the part. You had to move and make faces and get into character and _feed_ the camera.

Quistis placed a hand on her hip and lifted her chin, the nails of her other hand gently stroking her throat as she parted her lips and sent a smoldering glare towards the camera. Rinoa zoomed the camera to each face and walked in an arc as she snapped away. She blinked when she focused it onto Squall. "Hang on," she said. "Let me fix your hair." She walked up to him and crouched in front of him.

Liquidly he moved so that was sitting down, his elbow sinking behind him to rest upon the stones. "The crouch was hurting," he said.

"That's fine," Rinoa told him. "I got enough shots of you crouched so you changing positions isn't the end of the world." She leaned in and fussed with the brown strands that hung over his eyes. Curiosity got the best of her and Rinoa lightly ran a finger over the raised scar that crossed the bridge of his nose. "This is an interesting scar," she murmured as she stood to her feet. "How'd you get this?"

His fingers reached up and traced over the skin, his furrowing brows causing the scar to crinkle a bit. He blinked for a moment, thinking, as if he had just remembered that the scar was there. "Fight," he said.

Rinoa paused, her face literally screaming _Uh…what?_ She clicked her tongue and continued aiming her camera and shooting.

An hour or so later Rinoa had moved them outside the orphanage. The sun had started to go down but the sky was still very much blue. Rinoa stationed the band in front of the orphanage's entrance. The large wooden entryway was overgrown with ivy and one of the doors was dangling from its broken hinge.

She had captured a few serious shots before Zell decided to monkey around and tried climbing on the door. It resulted in the door crumbling into itself and Zell jumping high into the air like a surprised cat. Rinoa caught all of it, from Zell's first leap onto the door to the _Oh shit_ look on his face when he felt the door start to shake to the impressive leap he administered. She also caught Quistis' fingers flying to her lips as she released a startled shriek and Irvine's surprised grimace. The only change in Squall's expression was that his eyebrows lifted, his fingers raised to light his cigarette, and the minuscule turn of his head.

After the slight fiasco Rinoa captured all the laughter on film. Zell's shoulders elevated up to his ears as he mischievously snickered, his eyes wide and bright as he looked right at the camera. "Oops!"

Quistis was laughing so hard that she had to throw her arms around Squall's shoulders to keep herself steady. "Zell you fucking idiot!" she cried.

Squall shifted his cigarette so that it dangled out of the corner of his lips. In a quick movement he had his arms around Quistis' torso and started to lift her off the ground. Irvine hurried over and grabbed hold of her ankles. They ignored her squeals and curses and held her high into the air. Zell crouched in the space beneath her squirming supine body and held up his hands in horns. "Yeeeeeeeeeeeeeahh!" he shouted.

The chemistry that sparked between the four was contagious. There was such a brotherhood and sense of family encircled in all of them. Rinoa and Selphie laughed as they watched the bandmates bicker and shout with each other—actually, Quistis was doing most of the shouting while the boys simply laughed at her and ignored her requests.

"Put me down, you assholes!" she demanded.

Zell stood to his feet and placed the back of his head against Quistis' stomach. With his arms reaching beneath her he balanced her on his shoulders. Irvine and Squall stepped away so that the two blondes formed a T. Zell made a face at the camera and quickly spun around.

Quistis shrieked but kept perfectly still, knowing full well that if she kicked out her legs the possibility of Zell losing his equilibrium and then dropping her would be much higher. "Put me down!" she screamed, screwing her eyes tightly.

* * *

As the sun began to lower into the horizon Rinoa hurried them down the chipped stone walkway that spiraled down the hillside. Squall greedily chugged down a water bottle as he stomped down the path. His eyes traveled down to Rinoa's back as she walked in front of him. Her shirt was a loose black sweater that dangled off of her shoulders, exposing the angel wings inked into her flesh. He really did like that tattoo. The detail within it was so painstakingly precise.

"Ok, so I want you guys to line up right in front of the water," Rinoa was saying. "I want to capture some silhouette shots of you guys. Squall, give me your water bottle." The four lined up in front of the softly rolling water, giving Rinoa their backs.

Rinoa adjusted her settings and took a few test shots as she calculated the natural light. She continued glancing upward as she worked her camera. Even though all she could see were black figures in front of a blood red and orange sky, she could tell who was who. Zell was playing air guitar and laughing while Quistis was stretching her long arms into the air. Squall was standing with his arms crossed and Irvine was leaning an elbow on Squall's shoulder.

Selphie sat down in the cool sand and watched Rinoa work. "They really are a family, aren't they?" she mused.

The wistfulness in Selphie's voice made Rinoa smile and sigh softly. "Yeah," she agreed. That was the thing she had noticed about the metal/hard rock scene, everyone thought they were all scary and demonic but in reality they were a bunch of goobers. There was such a comradery within the metal scene, it was admirable. "Selphie! Quick, let's make a bonfire out of those dried twigs over there!"

The two raced against the dwindling sunlight and quickly scooped up the dead twigs and crunchy leaves. "Squall, your lighter!" Selphie demanded, skillfully catching the small object when it was tossed to her. She quickly lit one of the leaves on fire and set it down onto the twigs, repeating the action until a small fire rose before them.

Rinoa motioned for the band to stand by the fire, ordered them to look into the flames as she snapped away. "Looking great you guys!" she said as she lowered the camera. For a brief moment she flipped through the images she had just taken and gave a very pleased squeal. "I think we're good!"

Irvine released a shattering scream and leapt over the fire. Rinoa threw her head back and laughed, her camera raised as she captured his actions. Irvine stood in front of Selphie and smiled down at her. "Having fun, babe?" he asked.

She responded with a chuckle and raised her arms to place her hands in his. "Yes! You guys looked amazing, I can't wait to see the shots." Her fingers lightly tugged at his open vest. "And uh…_you_ looked so hot," she whispered against his cheek.

His eyebrows shot up and he planted a kiss to her forehead. "Oh really now?"

Zell and Squall started to kick sand onto the fire to put it out. Quistis let out a yawn as she watched them. "That was fun," she said. Once the fire was extinguished, they all started their trek back up the hill.

"Oh man…" Rinoa said, stretching her arms high overhead as she walked up the trail. "I am _starving._" With one hand on her camera she struggled to step over the broken and rocky formation that had once been a path. Squall immediately wrapped a grip around her bicep and placed a supporting hand on the small of her back.

"Watch your step," he told her.

She carefully maneuvered her way up the path and shot Squall and thankful smile. "Is anyone else hungry?" she asked the others as they followed behind her and Squall. "A burger sounds _amazing_ right now."

"I'm pretty beat," groaned Zell. "My clients earlier today were determined to wipe me out."

Quistis couldn't even attempt to suppress her yawn. "Same," she agreed. "Even though I was able to sleep most of the day I am _exhausted._ I think I worked eight days straight without even realizing it."

Selphie was whispering something into Irvine's ear, her fingers curling into the fabric of the leather vest while the arm she had around his waist tugged him closer as they slowly walked. His arm that dangled over her shoulder suddenly tightened its hold on her. A grin washed over his face and he lifted his head towards Rinoa. "Uh…we're gonna call it an early night," he said.

At the slight breathiness of Irvine's voice, Squall turned to look at the couple behind him. He caught the heated stares that vibrated between Selphie and Irvine, took note of the way that Selphie ran her tongue over teeth as she gazed at the cowboy beside her. _Blatant,_ he thought.

Rinoa glanced over her shoulder and then immediately shot a look to Squall. "So…" she whispered, her dark eyes wide. "Could you possible give me a ride to my car? Something tells me they want to be _alone._"

Quistis and Zell flanked them. "Yeah…me too?" Quistis begged, slinging an arm over Rinoa's shoulder. "I swear if those two start going at it while I'm in the car I may kill them." As if on cue, the tell-tale noise of wet lip smacking sounded off behind them. Quistis' shoulders dropped and a defeated sigh whooshed out of her.

"Yeah…" Squall answered, fishing the keys from his pocket. "Your umbrella lights should be able to fit in the back."

"Catch you later, fuckers," Zell called without turning towards the couple behind them. He wasn't entirely sure if they had heard him but he didn't exactly care either.

* * *

Squall pulled up to the studio about an hour later and helped Rinoa pack the umbrella reflectors into the back of her Cube. Zell and Quistis had hurried off and left them alone in the parking lot. Squall pulled out a cigarette and lit it, he was about to see Rinoa off when he was interrupted by the loud growling of her stomach.

Sheepishly she covered her belly with her hands and gave him an awkward smile. "I'm still hungry," she said quietly. Rinoa pursed her lips and glanced over to her car as she tried to remember exactly what food she had in her apartment.

_Oh, yeah, _Squall thought. "You still want that burger?" he asked.

Rinoa immediately perked up. "Please? It's in the Deling Shopping Center right off of Garden." She looked at her phone and grinned happily. "And it's just after eight so they'll still be open."

Squall nodded towards his Jeep. "Alright, get in, a burger sounds pretty damn good actually."

Rinoa clapped her hands and slid into the passenger seat. "Oh my god," she grinned. "These burgers are _so good._ I have no idea what they season their meat with but it is _delicious._ Like seriously, I'm about to drool right now I am so damn excited."

* * *

Rinoa's shoulders drooped when Squall pulled up to the burger place…or, at least, what was left of it. "What?" she whined. "Why did they put a coffee shop here? There's one right across the street!"

Squall found himself looking at the most heartbroken face he had ever seen…and over food, no less. He tried not to laugh, he didn't want her thinking he was making fun of her, but the look on her face was unbelievably adorable.

"Goddammit," she pouted, her stomach rumbling in accord with her frustration. "Sorry to make you drive all this way," she said to Squall. "I had no idea it had closed down." _What a waste,_ she thought to herself. She was really looking forward to that burger…and to spending some time with Squall, but she wasn't about to admit that.

"Well…" Squall started, his voice dropping low as he began to assess the situation. He tapped his fingers along the steering wheel as he glanced around. "We could go to my apartment." It wasn't far, only about a ten minute drive from the shopping center.

Rinoa's nerves tingled at the suggestion. She wet her lips with the tip of her tongue and kept her eyes glued to the dashboard in front of her. "You've got a burger joint at your apartment?" she asked.

"No, but I've got a grill and plenty of food. I went grocery shopping yesterday after work."

Rinoa turned to face him with those large brown eyes of hers. "You mean you'll feed me?" she pouted, her bottom lip quivering.

Squall let out a soft chuckle and playfully shoved her back into her seat. "Yes, yes I'll feed you," he promised, shifting the Jeep into reverse.

* * *

Squall unlocked the door to his studio apartment and let Rinoa walk in. Immediately they were greeted by a long and dark narrow hallway. He brushed past her and flipped on the light. "Bathroom's down there," he said, pointing to the right. "In case you need it."

"Ok." Rinoa didn't need it at the moment, but it was nice that he pointed it out to her for future reference. She unlaced her combat boots and settled them beside the front door.

"Kitchen's this way." Squall led Rinoa down the hallway that led to the rest of the apartment. It wasn't much but it was everything he needed. Since it was a studio apartment, it was a completely open layout. His kitchen was a strip of cabinets along the wall with a stove, sink, an attached microwave, a fridge, and a small island with two steel barstools. His living room was a plain black sofa in front of a cracked glass coffee table and an impressive entertainment center and flat screen tv. His meticulously made king sized bed was tucked in the far right corner of the apartment. "You can put your purse on the couch."

Rinoa watched as Squall made his way onto the patio and turned the light on. He uncovered the small kettle grill and filled it with charcoal. "There's beer in the fridge," he told her.

"Got it." Rinoa pulled open the fridge door and pulled out two bottles. "It's a nice place," she said. "I've always liked studio apartments, they're so homey."

Squall lit a fire and covered the grill. "Yeah, I like it here." He re-entered the apartment and wiped his hands onto his pants. "Thanks." He sipped at the beer Rinoa handed him and brushed past her to head towards his closet that was beside the bathroom door. "I'm gonna change."

* * *

When Squall came back Rinoa was rummaging through his refrigerator. "What are you looking for?" he asked.

"Seeing what kind of vegetables you have," she answered. "Lettuce, peppers…you know." She pulled open the bottom drawer and lifted up a plastic bag that held two large green peppers. While she found some other ingredients (cheese, lettuce, ketchup), she settled them onto the center island behind her.

Squall reached into the fridge and grabbed some hamburger patties he'd had on the second shelf. "Did you want one patty or two?" he asked.

"Oh, just one will be enough for me." Rinoa glanced up and took note of the slim white t-shirt and the baggy black and red plaid sweat pants he had changed into. There was something so enthralling about a man when he wore well-fitting pajamas. She turned her attention back to the green pepper in front of her and began to slice it into thin strips. The half she didn't use she wrapped back into the plastic bag and made a mental note to ask if Squall had any Tupperware to place the pepper into.

While Squall busied himself with the meat, Rinoa finished preparing all the toppings. When she had an assortment ready for them, she grabbed her beer and went to join Squall on the patio. "How's it going?" she asked, closing the slider behind her.

He simply nodded and lit a cigarette. "They're almost done," he said through the smoke.

It wasn't long before they were sitting at the bar. They toasted their beer bottles and Squall waited for Rinoa's reaction as she bit into her burger. When her eyes closed and she instantly started smiling, her fingers reaching up to cover her full mouth, he grinned and went to his own burger.

"Amazing," she said from behind her fingers. She swallowed her bite and raised her bottle to him. "You sir, are fabulous with the grill."

"Thanks," he said.

While they ate Rinoa started glancing around. "It's a nice studio," she commented. "It's roomy too. Some studio apartments I looked at back in Timber were maybe half the size."

Squall nodded as he looked along the walls. They weren't covered with much…a few LP's he had gotten from concerts over the years, a few movie posters, and a broken pair of drumsticks framed in a shadowbox (his sister had insisted he hold onto his first pair, no matter how old they were). "It is a lot bigger than the barracks," he said. "Maybe that's why I prefer studio apartments—I'm used to the layout."

"Barracks?" Rinoa turned back to face him and continued eating.

"I was SEED."

Rinoa's eyes widened. "The military school?"

"Yep."

"Oh wow." She never pegged Squall to be part of a military faction…perhaps that was where he had gotten that scar from? "You went to Balamb Garden?" When Squall nodded she felt herself almost at a loss for words. Balamb Garden was one of the most exclusive and prestigious military schools, primarily because of the SEED faction. "Wow," she repeated. "How long have you been out?"

"I joined when I was seventeen and served the required four years but I continued on as a hand-to-hand combat trainer." He stood to his feet and picked up Rinoa's empty plate. "Want another beer?" he asked.

"Please." She adjusted her shoulders and crossed her legs as she watched Squall walk towards the sink and dump the dishes. "So…what made you join the Special Enlisted Elite Division?"

Squall paused with his hand on the fridge. Slowly he reached in and grabbed a bottle. With his eyes scanning over the casual body language that Rinoa displayed, he popped off the bottle cap with the edge of his lighter. "Not many people know what SEED stands for," he noted.

"My dad's the General of Galbadia's Army base," she explained. "He's gone to Balamb Garden a few times for recruitment and conferences."

"Ah." He handed her the beer bottle and reached for one of his own.

"So why'd you join?"

"Money, mostly," he answered. "The education system was top notch, so that was a plus." He took a long swig of the bottle and set it down on the island as he sat back down in his seat. "I was raised by my sister—she's a lot older than me—and even though I was working throughout high school to help with bills we were just barely scraping by. SEED offered a great opportunity career wise…" He shrugged. "And a great life insurance policy to take care of my sister, you know, just in case."

Rinoa made a face of revulsion. She knew that all too well. Her father had made it very clear to her that if something ever happened to him she would be well taken care of—financially—for the rest of her life. "Are you still with Garden?"

He lifted his shoulders and grunted. "Technically I retired when I was twenty-four but sometimes I get asked to go in during their recruitment conventions." He finished off his beer and toyed with the bottle's long neck. After a small pause he turned his head to face Rinoa. His brows furrowed when he saw that she was grinning, almost on the verge of a giggling fit, really. "What?"

Rinoa smiled fully and playfully nudged his calf with her foot. "Nothing, just imagining you in your SEED uniform," she beamed. Her fingers coyly brushed over her lips. "I bet you looked really handsome in it." Rinoa chuckled at the shy smile he gave her and she stood to her feet. "No, I'm serious!" she said, adjusting the hem of her shorts. "You were probably the best looking guy there."

"Well, I can't argue with that…" His smirk dimmed when she reached over him to collect the beer bottles. "What are you doing?" He followed her movements around the island to come behind her at the sink.

"Just helping you clean up," she told him, pouring the rest of the foam down the drain.

"You don't need to do that," he said, placing a hand over hers as she reached for the faucet. "I'll clean up in the morning."

Rinoa smiled and turned towards him. "No, no," she disputed. "I am not a messy houseguest, I will help you clean up since I did help make the mess in the first place." As if to add evidence to her argument, she pointed towards the knives and cutting board she soiled from cutting up the peppers. "Consider it my thanks for dinner."

Absently Squall's fingers reached up and gently brushed some of that raven black hair away from her face. "You don't have to thank me," he said. "I was hungry too." He wasn't about to tell her that she could 'thank him some other way' or some nonsense like that. Sure, perhaps a few years before he might have, back when he was younger and didn't know much about the opposite gender. But those were lines that you gave to _girls, _Rinoa was a _woman, _and she deserved to be treated as such.

He watched her press her lips together as she shyly looked downward to where his other hand had cautiously placed itself at the curve of her waist, watched as a slight pink flush rose to the apples of her cheeks. He had felt the electricity between them sizzle and pop…but he didn't want to misunderstand.

Rinoa lifted her head so that her eyes locked straight into his. Her tiny pink tongue darted out for just a moment, parting her lips into a soft, wry smile.

Squall leaned in. His hand wrapped around the back of her neck and brought her forward so that her body was close to his. His lips pressed against her mouth, her lips so soft and lush that his fingers instantly tightened within her hair. The action earned a muffled squeal from her and she snaked her hands up his chest, her nails raking over the material of his shirt.

Gingerly he opened his mouth, his tongue prodding the seam of her lips as he moved them both so that they were leaning against the center island. When she opened her mouth to grant him entrance he caught her bottom lip between his teeth.

Rinoa gasped and snaked her hands up higher, her fingers threading into his hair. Squall moved so slowly against her, his movements calm and liquid yet they left blooms of heat spreading across her skin wherever he had touched. When his tongue met hers he had to conceal the tremor that raced down his spine.

A loud, piercing howl came from off to the side. Squall paused, his brows furrowing as he slowly opened his eyes when Rinoa pulled her lips away. He blinked. _The hell is that…? _

Rinoa's eyes were large and in a state of near terror. "Oh shit," she whispered. "My phone."


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N: Hello my dears, thank you again for the reviews, they mean a lot! xoxoxox**

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Rinoa froze, her eyes large and wide at the surprisingly shrill noise of her phone. "Sorry, my phone," she said unnecessarily, shoving Squall's hand away from her waist. She scrambled away from the kitchen and reached for her purse, quickly tore through the pockets to seize the contraption that was demanding her full attention. She saw the number that blared across the screen and swore. "Hello?" she said into the mouthpiece.

"Rinoa, he needs you," was all the voice on the other end said.

She released a breath and gingerly pinched the creased skin between her eyes. _Now? Really?_ "Is the damage bad?" she asked.

"Just come get him."

The person on the line hung up briskly, leaving Rinoa to make a rumbling noise of defeat within her throat. "Fuck," she muttered, lowering her phone back into her purse. Then dread washed over her. She didn't have her car. Slowly she turned around.

Squall was still in the kitchen, leaning back against the counter he'd had her pinned against. His arms were bent, hands gripping the edge of the counter as he silently watched her. The fire that had been in his eyes only moments before had simmered into calm and patient confusion. Without a word or a change in expression, he was asking her what happened.

"I uh…I gotta go," she said with a wince. "I'm sorry."

He simply blinked and glanced over to where he had his keys atop of the coffee table. "You want me to take you to your car?"

"Actually…." She made a grimace of sheer embarrassment clutched her phone to her breast. "Fuck, I really hate to ask you this…but could you drive me to the Deling Hotel off of Sunset?"

That was when his expression changed to concerned. "What?"

"It's closer than my car, I can get a taxi later. There's just…" She groaned and her lips scowled as she tried to form her words. "I have to pick up someone." When he didn't answer right away Rinoa waved her hands, flustered and ashamed at having to even ask this large favor. "Sorry! I really shouldn't have asked…I can get a taxi here, actually, so never mind!"

Squall moved away from the kitchen and wrapped a hand around her flailing wrist. "No, it's fine," he assured her. "I can take you there…I'm just a little taken aback about the turn of events."

"You're telling me!" She tried to laugh but instead the noise that came out of her resembled a gurgling hiccup. "So…you'll take me to the hotel?" He wasn't asking too many questions, to which she felt exceedingly grateful, but she caught the twinge in his eyes that spoke of concern and apprehension.

"Yeah…let me just put some pants on." He released her wrist and headed back towards the bathroom.

Rinoa nodded and pressed two fingers to her temples as she listened to his steady footsteps. _Damn, damn, damn,_ she cursed herself. Her mind raced to the kiss he had just placed upon her—merely minutes before—and she shut her eyes at the scorching memory. _The hell am I doing?_

At the sound of Squall picking up his keys, Rinoa scooped up her purse and followed him out the door.

* * *

The car ride was silent and painstakingly awkward. It was the longest fifteen minutes of Rinoa's life. She couldn't even bring herself to look at Squall. The only words he spoke to her were asking where exactly the Deling Hotel resided.

"Right here," she said when they arrived.

He was about to turn into the hotel's parking structure when she pointed toward the small building extension beside the hotel.

"I'm actually going in there," Rinoa said.

Squall pulled into a vacant spot and switched off his headlights.

"So, um, you can just leave me here," she told him, her hand firmly grasping the door handle. "I don't know how long I'm going to be here and I don't want to make you wait..."

Squall just frowned and turned off the engine. He wasn't entirely sure what they were doing here, all he gathered from the exterior was that it was a bar, and all he knew was that someone she knew was there and that she had to get him. "It's fine," he said, stepping out of the car. "I don't work tomorrow." Even though she gave him a smile that said relief he could see the hesitation and wariness in her eyes. It made him wonder even further exactly who this person was that they were picking up.

Rinoa walked up to the entrance and Squall followed suit. She easily maneuvered her way through the halls and he got the idea that she had been there a many number of times. One of the bartenders took one look at Rinoa and sent her a nod of acknowledgement, which Rinoa returned with a shoddy salute.

A large and bulky man came out of the shadows and approached her. Their movements towards each other spoke of familiarity and Squall simply stood beside her and waited for the story to come forth.

"He's back there," said the man, jerking a thumb towards a dark corner.

Rinoa sighed, her shoulders drooping and for the first time since he had met her, Squall saw that she looked _tired. _This last week that he had known her and the few days he had spent with her, she had been peppy, energetic and full of laughter. Now she appeared drained, exhausted, and completely _done_ as if all the upbeat vigor had been sucked from her. She sent him a quick and unreadable glance before making her way towards the corner.

In the corner was a lone man, slumped over with his face on top of the table. His arm was outstretched, an empty whiskey glass possessively within his clutch. He reeked of booze and a small puddle of spit pooled around his open mouth.

Rinoa leaned in, gently placed her hands on his shoulders and gave him a soft shake. "Come on, it's time to go home."

The man shifted, a small snort coming from him as he shuddered awake. "Wha…what's goin' on?" he mumbled. The corner was dark, but Squall could see that the man was much older than he or Rinoa, perhaps in his late fifties or even early sixties. The deep creases around the man's eyes spoke more about exhaustion rather than age. The man twisted his body too much and tumbled out of the booth, the glass coming with him and shattering along the floor.

The sudden noise caught the attention of some of the bar's patrons, and Rinoa's skin flushed even though the chance of people actually seeing her were very slim. "Come on," she urged again, her voice catching a slightly higher note in desperation. "Get up, it's time to go."

Squall reached down to help her pull the man up but she quickly shook her head at him. "No, no, I got it," she insisted. "Can you just ask Roy if Caraway paid his tab?" With her elbow she pointed towards the bar.

_Caraway? _The name sounded familiar… "Sure." Squall approached the bar, taking notice of the two bartenders. One was a tall and burly man with a neatly trimmed beard while the other was an older woman with streaks of gray woven into her brown hair. "Are you Roy?" Squall asked the male.

"I'm Roy," said the woman, sliding a shot glass to the patron to her left. She wiped her hands with a dish rag and made her way to Squall. "Rosaline," she said. "When Rinoa was younger she had trouble pronouncing my name, used to call me Roy-say-lean. After a while 'Roy' just stuck." She glanced over to the corner where Rinoa struggled.

"You know Rinoa very well?" Squall guessed.

Roy gave a slight nod and clicked her tongue as she watched Rinoa yank on Caraway's collar. "I know her father very well, along with his demons," she quickly added. "The General's been coming here for years. Unfortunately, so has Rinoa…to come pick him up." She slung the dish rag over her shoulder and looked back to Squall. "His tab's already taken care of, if that's what she sent you over to do."

_Her father? _Squall thanked the bartender and turned back to where Rinoa struggled with straightening up the older man. _Not __**the**_ _General Caraway? _He looped an arm around Caraway's torso while taking Caraway's right arm for balance. Squall stood up straight and jerked his head at Rinoa. "Let's go."

Caraway stumbled at first, his feet sloppily trying to keep in time with Squall's strides. "Hey…what's going…what's this?" He adjusted his arm that was strapped around Squall's shoulders. Caraway blinked as he tried to focus on the younger man's face. "Who're you?"

"Just keep walking," Rinoa ordered sternly, walking behind the two men with her hands ready to shoot out in case Caraway decided to take a tumble.

Squall practically hurled the older man into the passenger seat. He watched as Rinoa dotingly strapped her father into his seat belt, brushed the long strands of graying black hair from his face, before pulling away and climbing into the back. With a quiet sigh Squall pulled the lever to bring his seat back to its upright position and slid in. "Where to?" he asked Rinoa. Their eyes met in the rearview mirror and he could see the quiet apprehension in her eyes.

"I'm so sorry," she whispered. "I'm really not trying to treat you like a taxi…"

"It's fine," he said. Again. "Where to?"

Rinoa let out a breath and glanced out the window. "Caraway lives in the Leviathan Estates community."

"Got it." He started the Jeep and reversed his way out of the parking structure.

* * *

The gated community that Caraway lived in—that Rinoa had lived in until she left for college—was quiet, reserved, and well sought after. Many first-time homeowners coveted owning property that resided behind those intricate wrought iron gates. It was private, closed off from the busy streets and nightlife that was characteristic of Deling.

Squall pulled up to the security gate. He was about to get out so Rinoa could squeeze through the window and the front seat to put in the code, but she just placed a hand on his shoulder.

"The code is 0528," she told him.

Dutifully he entered the code and the gate opened up for them. "Where to now?"

"Just go straight for a while and take the third right," Rinoa answered. "It's the house at the end of the cul de sac…with the red door."

A few minutes later Squall pulled up to the house and parked. As he exited and rounded the back of his Jeep he noticed that the house was more like a mansion—much too large for only two people, if indeed only two people lived there. His brows rose momentarily and he pulled open the passenger door.

Caraway's eyes were struggling to stay open, his eyes glassy and unable to focus. He looked at Squall and accepted the younger man's arm to pull him out. "Where's my daughter?" he mumbled.

Rinoa pulled her keys from her purse and hurried towards the door. "Come on," she said, tugging on the General's collar. "Get inside." She flipped on the lights and led Squall down a hallway. "We're just going to put him in the guest room," she told him. "I don't want to risk taking him upstairs."

Squall followed Rinoa to a room at the end of the hall. Its walls were built-ins filled with multitudes of books and maps. In one corner was a leather lounge chair trained towards a fancy entertainment center. The bed was a simple daybed covered with dark blue satin sheets and white lacey pillows. He half-walked half-carried the General to the bed and laid him down.

"I'm gonna get him a blanket…and maybe a bucket," Rinoa said, disappearing through the door.

"I'll be outside."

Rinoa paused at the shortness of his words, her lips pressing together as she tried to figure out what happened next. The answer was that she _didn't_ know what was happening, not a clue. She sighed and hurried towards the linen closet beside the bathroom. She grabbed a towel, a blanket, and her trusty puke bucket. Behind her she could hear Squall's footsteps along the marble tile heading towards the front door.

When she returned to the guest room she found that Squall had taken off Caraway's shoes and jacket, even neatly folded the article of clothing before nestling it onto the lounge chair. She lay down the towel beside the bed and put down the bucket.

"You are so much trouble," she whispered to her father, lightly stroking the creases along his forehead. Had they always been that deep? She saw him only a few days before, had she not noticed?

Caraway grunted, his eyelids fluttering. His eyes opened for a brief moment, the frown that seemed to be permanently etched into his face softening. "Julia?"

Rinoa felt a sharp tug within her chest. For years she had been told by many that she was becoming the spitting image of her mother. She couldn't even imagine what her father felt when he looked at her. When he picked her up from the airport she caught the hitch in his breath, the slight drop of his jaw when he saw her. He looked as if he had seen a ghost. Then, as suddenly as it had come, it was gone, and instead he focused fatherly criticism on her tattooed shoulders.

"No, Caraway, it's Rinoa."

"Oh." Caraway closed his eyes and his lips thinned in almost a heartbroken disappointment. "That's right."

Rinoa lightly draped the blanket over her father. With a sigh she straightened out the puke bucket beside the bed and stepped outside. She chewed her bottom lip when she found Squall sitting on the porch. He turned to her, the cigarette dangling from his lips. With a sympathetic look he held out his pack to her. It had been several months since she'd had a cigarette, and that was because the project she had been working on was incredibly stressful. However, sometimes she had been guilty of sharing a smoke while drinking. She nodded, taking the cigarette between two fingers and leaning in close so Squall could light it for her. "Thanks," she murmured through the smoke.

They sat in silence for a few moments, the only sounds were the burning of the cigarette paper and the night time crickets. Squall exhaled the smoke through his teeth. "So…" he said. "Your father is an alcoholic."

He said it so simply, so casually, as if he had just stated the fact that her father was male or human or had black hair. The nonchalant manner of his tone made her giggle almost hysterically. "Yeah," she said with a crooked grin. "Yeah, he is." She released a deep breath and leaned against the post. "He was doing so well. He went to the meetings and stayed away from the bar…but, I don't know, over the last few months it started up again." She blinked and sucked on her cigarette.

Squall stared out into the front yard, his eyes scanning over the perfectly trimmed lawn and the pristine stepping stones that made up the driveway. Normally he had heard of alcoholics losing all interest in the upkeep of their homes to the point where it looked like they lived in shambles. However, Rinoa's father managed to keep up appearances when it came to home aesthetic.

"Is it why you moved back?" he asked.

Rinoa paused, her teeth bared as smoke slipped through her lips. Oh how she hated him at the moment. He was too good at reading people—at reading her—too good at delving deep into motives and behavior. _Fucking SEED,_ she thought. Long ago Caraway had mentioned to her that SEED were trained to tactically analyze a person, but she had never had someone work the tactic on her. "Partially," she muttered through her teeth.

She thought back to a few weeks ago, when she got the call from Roy. _"He's been making a few appearances," _she had said. It was then that Rinoa knew that she would have to return to Deling. When Caraway had offered to take her to brunch the other morning, she hesitated. Each and every establishment he suggested had some sort of bar. It wasn't until he settled on the Phoenix Diner—a family pancake house—that she figured it'd be safe. He would be forced to only be able to drink coffee or orange juice.

She knew what was coming. May 29th, the twenty year anniversary of her mother's death. Caraway had taken Julia out for her birthday, he had pulled out all the stops: dinner, dancing, followed by taking her to see one of her favorite plays at Galbadia's most prestigious theatres. The night was perfect, romantic—Caraway had taken a picture of her beaming and elated face and kept a copy in his wallet—even the sudden rainstorm that washed over Galbadia couldn't wipe the smile off Julia's face.

She looked at Squall who was watching her with those steely blue eyes. "My mom was killed in a car accident when I was five," she said. "The anniversary's coming up in a few weeks." She crossed her arms over her chest and looked towards the sky. She had been avoiding coming back to Deling for years, but that last phone call from Roy made her realize that Caraway's descending spiral back into alcoholism was closer than she realized. "I can find work anywhere," she said with a nonchalant shrug. "It wasn't a huge hassle to move back."

Squall simply nodded and flicked his cigarette over the wall.

"I'm sorry you had to see that," Rinoa apologized. "When Caraway drinks he…" She trailed off and rather than finishing she let out a long and tired sigh before sucking on her cigarette. Her hand fell limp and useless onto her thigh. _Some night_, she thought.

Watching her movements, her constant aversion to maintain eye-contact with him, the jitteriness of her fingers, the way she nervously trailed off and couldn't finish her sentence…it struck a chord with him. "Hey," he said, his voice low. "Rinoa, has your dad ever hit you?"

That caused her to look at him directly. Her eyes were wide, the warm and rich chocolate brown completely surrounded by white. Her plush lips were dropped open in aghast. "What? Oh god—_no_," she said with earnest. "_No. _Caraway is a lot of things but an abusive prick he is _not._"

Squall held up a hand to stay back any more defensive words about her father. "I believe you," he said. "I was just…with alcoholics you never know. Some go into a violent rage when they're black-out drunk and some just fall over themselves. I just wanted to make sure that if you decided to stay here tonight that I wouldn't be leaving you in danger."

"Oh," Rinoa breathed. Then she smiled and gently placed a hand over his. "Thank you. No, my father has never so much as raised a finger at me—his voice, sure—but never has he ever been abusive."

He nodded and gave her fingers a squeeze before pulling his hand away. "That's good, I'm glad to hear it."

Things between them grew quiet for a while. Out of the corner of his eye he could see Rinoa suck on her bottom lip and he felt his throat tighten at the fleeting memory of the taste of her tongue. He listened to her sigh. He wanted to keep the conversation going, wanted to tell her that his mother was dead too and that his foster parents were abusive alcoholics. He didn't want the night to end just yet…but nothing was coming up. What was he supposed to say? The girl had enough on her mind already, she was probably well spent. It was probably best that he left.

He stood to his feet and held out a hand for her to take. When he had her standing he shoved his hands into his back pockets and placed one foot on the porch steps.

"I'm…" She licked her lips as she tried to get the words out. "I'm sorry. You know, for all this. It wasn't how I planned tonight to go." She shrugged and absently rubbed her neck. She hadn't really had _anything _planned for tonight. Everything seemed to just be played by ear.

He was looking at her with his eyes still hot and flared like they were before she got the phone call. Even though the heat within them had simmered because of the circumstance, it was still very much there.

"It's ok," he said.

"You're not mad?"

Squall frowned and turned his head fully towards her. "What?" What could he possibly be angry at her for? "Over what?"

Rinoa shrugged, fumbling with her hands again as she tried to stammer out an explanation. "Well…I mean, I made you drive around Deling…made you feed me…"

"And your point is?"

Suddenly Rinoa realized how foolish she was sounding. "I…uh…just feel like I'm asking a lot of favors for someone you just met. I mean, I'm a stranger and I'm asking you to make me a burger and help me pick up my drunk dad?" When he just sent her a wry grin she nervously giggled. "Well, I guess that as a SEED it's second nature for you to help someone out."

He exhaled a short laugh. "It's not just about being SEED," he said. "It's also called being human." He gently tapped her arm. "I had no issue helping you tonight. We may have just met a week ago but I don't consider you a stranger, Rinoa. Besides, you helped me out too, remember? And you hardly knew anything about me other than my name and you let me _sleep_ on your couch."

She smiled at that, she'd had a very similar thought about that situation when she mentioned it to Selphie. "True, very true." She tucked a strand behind her ear and let out a long breath. "I'm gonna stay here," Rinoa told him, her lips twisting into a nearly defeated scowl. "Watch over him, you know? He'll get me a cab in the morning."

Squall gave her a nod and reached for his keys. He shuffled them within his palm for a moment, his tongue running over his teeth as he thought for a moment. "Rinoa," he said quietly. "Do you have my number?"

"Hm?" Her eyes rolled to the side as she mentally dialed through her phone. "Uh…no. I know I have Irvine's because Selphie gave it to me to ask him for the password to Absolute Lore's social media page. But uh…no, no I don't have yours."

He held out his hand. "Give me your phone." When she placed it into his palm he dialed his own number. He ignored the ringing that came from his own pocket and handed the phone back to Rinoa. "Call me," he told her. "For any reason."

Rinoa smiled softly and tucked her phone back into her pocket. "Thank you," she whispered. "I really…_really_ appreciate your help tonight."

"Anytime. I'm glad I was available to help you."

Rinoa's smile grew wider and she leaned against the porch post. "Me too," she told him. "I had a good time tonight though, despite the incident."

Squall lifted his shoulders in indifference. "Shit happens." He gave a slight grin and his eyes sparked with that heat that had had Rinoa frozen against the kitchen counter. "I'd do it all over again."

Before she was fully able to register exactly what he meant by 'it,' he was starting to head down the walkway.

"Oh yeah," he remembered, turning around to face her as he walked slowly backwards. "Our band manager Cid and his wife are coming over to the studio tomorrow, they want to meet you. They are obsessed with the photos you put up the other day from the day we met." He blinked and then snapped his fingers. "Oh, and pay you."

Rinoa chuckled at the last sentence. "Ok, what time?"

"One."

She nodded. "Alright, I'll be there."

Squall clicked his tongue and turned back towards his car. "See you tomorrow," he called.

Rinoa waved him off before turning around and heading back inside. She turned the locks, slid the deadbolt home, and leaned her back against the solid mahogany door. She let out a sigh and held her head in her hands. "What a night," she whispered. Her fingers traveled down the curves of her face and rested over her lips. Rinoa softly smiled as she thought back to how Squall had leaned in, how he cradled the back of her neck so gently before clutching the roots of her hair with subdued primal lust.

He was so polite, so tender…but beneath that sensitivity she had a small taste of the passionate and raw and carnal lover that waited beneath. She gently rubbed her bottom lip that he had nibbled on. She nearly broke into a giggle as she suddenly found herself giddily embarrassed. "What am I? A little teenager again?" she wondered aloud, thinking back to her first kiss at fourteen and how she ran up to her bedroom and squeezed her pillow as she squealed with laughter.

With an elated sigh she walked down the hallway to the guest bedroom to check on her father. When she saw that he was peacefully snoring she turned around and headed up the stairs. She made her way into her old bedroom and crossed her arms as she looked along its bare and empty walls. Since Caraway had given her the old furniture from the room, it was very bare, filled with only an old computer desk and television set.

Often she wondered what he planned on doing with the house. It was much too large for only one man who made no inclination of dating again. Rinoa thought he would dip his toe back into the dating pool a few times but she wasn't sure if it even went past the first date.

She went back downstairs to the living room. She grabbed the throw that was resting along the edge of the couch and wrapped it around her. Rinoa pulled out her phone and set her alarm before placing her phone atop the side table. As she waited for sleep to come to her, her mind wandered back to Squall. She wondered what he was thinking at that moment, wondered where the night might have gone if Roy hadn't called her to pick up Caraway.

Her lips turned to a shameless grin. _Oh, who am I kidding?_ she thought. _I know __**exactly**__ where the night would have gone. _She licked her lips and pulled the blanket over her head.


	8. Chapter 8

**A/N: This has hit over a thousand views! Hello readers! =)**

* * *

Rinoa lifted her head at the sound of shuffling footsteps coming down the hall. She locked eyes with Caraway who immediately then honed his attention towards the steaming mug of coffee that sat alone on the kitchen table.

"Is that one for me?" he asked, one hand raising up to rub his eye.

"Cream, no sugar," she said, scooting the mug closer to the edge of the table. She'd already finished hers and placed the mug into the sink.

Caraway took the mug into his grasp and gratefully slurped. "Thank you," he mumbled. "I'll make you breakfast." He started for the fridge and looked at the large carton of eggs. "Omelette? With plenty of cheese and peppers?"

"No thanks, I should probably be heading out soon."

He nodded at the refusal and moved towards the telephone. "I'll call you a cab then." His fingers quickly punched in the numbers that he knew by heart and patiently waited for the operator. "Hello, yes, I need a cab to pick up my daughter…Leviathan Estates…yes. Number 1581. Thank you." Caraway placed the phone back into its cradle and turned back to Rinoa. "They should be here in about twenty minutes."

"Ok, thanks." Rinoa took in a deep breath as she heard Caraway slide into the seat across from her and watch her play with her phone. "How are you feeling?" she asked quietly.

He made a soft noise of indifference and sipped from his mug. "Fine," he answered. "Thank you for picking me up, but I don't think it was necessary."

Rinoa bit her tongue. He always said something to that extent. He always claimed that he knew his limits and stayed right at their boundaries…which was always a lie. Although, he always knew that he was not able to drive, she had to give him that. Caraway _never_ drove when he was drunk. Ever. However, because he knew that he would not be able to drive, Caraway had an almost 'go big or go home' attitude about his drinking and would just continue on since hey, he's not driving, right? "Well, Roy felt differently."

Caraway nodded. "That young man who was with you last night, who was he?"

Rinoa shifted her shoulders and rubbed her temple as she groaned at Caraway's sudden change in topic. _Fine,_ she thought to herself. _I'm too tired to deal with this issue right now_. "That was Squall," she said. "He's the drummer of the band I've been hired to photograph. I told you about them the other day."

"Right, right…Absolute…?" He frowned.

"Lore," Rinoa finished for him.

"That's right," he said.

"He used to be SEED." After the words came out, she wasn't entirely sure why she had said them in the first place. She took note of Caraway's eyebrow that raised in sudden interest.

"Is that so?" Caraway finished his cup of coffee and stood up to make himself another. "How long ago did he serve? I might have come across him before."

"He said he was officially retired when he was twenty-four, and I think he said that was almost two years ago." Rinoa thought back to her conversation with Squall about his time as a SEED and tried to do the math. "I think he was there for seven years? Maybe eight."

Caraway returned with a fresh new cup. "It's a good faction," he said. "It's very beneficial since it's not tied to one specific branch of the military so after they serve their required four years they are able to enter any branch they desire. What's his last name?"

Rinoa balked. She sucked on her cheek as her eyes widened with each passing second. _Shit… _She didn't know. Honestly she didn't _any_ of their full names except for Selphie's. "Uh…"

Caraway narrowed his eyes and his face suddenly twisted into his normal scolding pose. "Rinoa…"

She picked up her purse and hastily stood to her seat. "I'll wait outside for that cab."

"Didn't you write a contract with them?"

"I did but we didn't write their full names! Just the name of the band and their band manager Cid."

He started to stand and she waved her hands at him.

"Oh, _no_," she protested. "If I don't get to lecture you about having to pick up your drunk ass all the time you are _not_ going to give me legal advice about how to run my business." As soon as the words flew out of her mouth she quickly regretted them. The look on her father's face pulled at her heart. He looked…_ashamed. _His alcoholism was unspoken between them because they both knew where it would lead. Rather than talk about it, Rinoa would simply plaster the refrigerator with AA meeting flyers or cover his bottles with them.

"Rinoa," he whispered, his eyes traveling downwards as he stared at the coffee mug upon the table. "I'm sorry."

Rinoa drew in a shaky breath and turned towards the door.

* * *

"I thought Rinoa was here?" Quistis said as she entered the studio. "Her car's here."

Zell shook his head and gestured toward Squall. "We thought so too but Squall texted her and she said that her dad called her a cab so she's at her apartment right now and is going to catch a cab ride over here."

Quistis simply blinked at the explanation and simply waved her hand in the air. "Ok," she said. She approached Cid and Edea and gave them both a hug. "How was your trip? I see your sunburn's getting better." She gently tapped the edge of Cid's nose.

He smiled and brushed her hand away. "Yes, it's much better," he chuckled. "It's not peeling as much now, so that's good."

Irvine hurried in and shoved his keys into the back of his faded and ripped blue jeans. "Hey, sorry I'm late." He glanced around. "Where's Rinoa? Her car's here?"

"She had to crash at her dad's last night," Squall said. When Irvine glanced at him with a questioning look, Squall simply held up his hands. "Family shit. She's gonna get a cab to bring her here." His phone beeped and he ran his thumb over the screen. "She's on her way here."

Edea clapped her fingertips together. "How wonderful," she murmured. "I can't wait to meet her!"

"It's too bad Selphie's working today, she could have given Rinoa a ride," Irvine said. "Oh well, shit happens."

A half hour later Rinoa breezed into the studio. "Sorry I'm late!" she cried, swiping the hair from her face. "My cabbie got a little turned around in my apartment complex and didn't know where the hell my unit was." She straightened the burgundy sundress she wore and immediately zeroed in on the older couple that sat on the couch in the small niche area of the studio. "Hi!" she said, stepping forward with her hand outstretched.

"Hello!" Cid stood up and happily shook her head. "I am Cid Kramer and this is my wife Edea." He stepped aside as he waited for the two women to introduce themselves. "It's so nice to finally meet you, we've heard so much about you."

"It's nice to meet you too! So…how long have you been their manager?"

"Well…" He glanced back to his wife as he thought. "We've known the kids for a while now…Edea used to be a manager at The Red Scorpion…" He turned back to Rinoa and chuckled. "I think I officially became their band manager about a year or so ago. Before that I was just someone they talked to about finances."

"Zell tells me that you all had a photoshoot yesterday?" Edea excitedly asked.

Rinoa nodded and pulled up her purse. "Yes! It was so much fun. I didn't have much time to really go through the shots today but I did put the shots I got onto this CD." She set the purse onto the couch and bent forward to dig through its contents. "Ah! Here it is." She handed the CD to Irvine who instantly placed it into his laptop that rested on the coffee table.

After a few moments of scrolling through the multitude of images, Cid nodded and rose from his seat on the couch. "Gorgeous shots," he told her. "Absolutely beautiful." He made his way over to where Edea's purse sat by the mini-fridge and dug through for his checkbook.

Edea motioned for Rinoa to sit by her while she continued through the images. "Oh, Rinoa, these photographs are _divine._" She placed a hand over her breast as she sighed, her lips curved into a very pleased grin. "I can see the talent and passion that you truly have for your craft simply by looking at these."

Rinoa couldn't help but giggle. "Oh, thank you," she said. "I really do love what I do."

"You certainly do!" Cid said, his eyes looking up over the rim of his wide-rimmed glasses. "I for one am very, _very_ grateful that our dear Selphie has brought you into our lives." He smiled and lowered his attention down to the check in front of him. He finished signing his name and handed the check to Rinoa. "I hope you find this a fair amount for dealing with our crazy kiddos."

"Oh, I think I've got quite a handle on them." Rinoa sent Cid a wink and took the check between her fingers. She glanced down at the numbers scrawled along its surface and balked. "Oh my…" she stammered. "This—this is more than the amount we had originally discussed!" She gestured between herself and Irvine with a hesitant grimace.

Cid waved his hands and refused to take the check back when she held it to him. "I know the numbers that you and Irvine had thrown around and, yes, that was a fair amount, but my wife and I believe that you deserve more. You are an absolute delight and already—because of _your_ photos—Absolute Lore's social media page has been spreading like wildfire. You put up the teaser picture…what, six days ago?" He turned around the laptop and clicked to the statistics of Absolute Lore's social media page. "Look at this chart. Hits and views have steadily increased since your original post. Then, when you posted the twelve photos of the kids and their instruments on Tuesday, the numbers _skyrocketed._"

Edea smiled brightly as she watched Rinoa stand with her mouth drawn open. "Your talents have proven to be quite the investment to Absolute Lore. Not to mention, I think the band enjoys your company!"

"Especially you, right?" Zell whispered to Squall, giving him a slight nudge with an elbow.

Though he couldn't deny it, Squall still responded with a quick right hook to Zell's shoulder and headed towards the open window so he could light a cigarette.

"Ow!"

No one had been paying attention to the two, but now suddenly all eyes turned towards them. "Everything alright?" Edea asked, her thin and perfectly sculpted eyebrows arched in concern when she saw Zell clutching his shoulder.

"Yep," Zell grinned. "We're good!"

Edea pursed her lips as she narrowed her eyes. "Uh huh…" she purred. "Right." She looked over to Squall who was giving her an innocent look. She wagged a finger at him to which he responded with a shrug of his shoulders to show he had absolutely no idea what she was insinuating.

"Which brings me to my next point…" Cid continued as he stood to his feet and straightened his tie. "Last night we were contacted by a company who would like to do business with us."

Rinoa swallowed. She didn't want to seem pessimistic, but everything seemed to be too good to be true. This wasn't how the entertainment industry really worked, right? It couldn't possibly move _that _fast…could it? She walked over to the mini-fridge and pulled out a bottle of water. She glanced over to Quistis who was accepting a lighter from Squall. The blonde looked over at Rinoa and motioned for her to come over.

"Sit here," she said, gently patting the seat of a barstool that stood beside her.

Rinoa hopped onto the seat and spun around a few times out of habit.

"Now, it's a small company," Cid was continuing, "created by a man originally from here. He's only done a few small projects but he reached out to me to see if we could work on a little project together, earn a little exposure for both parties."

"What company?" Zell asked.

"I actually had a quick video chat with the young man this morning," Cid said, digging through his notes. "He created Hyperion Images about four years ago with two other people, however only one of them is still working with him. He and his co-owner graduated from the Galbadian Film College five years ago, they have about three staff members that travel with them…they've been working in Esthar the last year and a half and recently relocated themselves back to Galbadia about six months ago."

"Hyperion Images?" Rinoa asked.

"Yes, have you heard of them?"

Rinoa casually nodded. "Yeah, I did a shoot with them while they were filming a document in Esthar for one of the art galleries. It's a great company considering it's still pretty small."

Irvine stretched his arms high above his head. "Well, the guy who runs it saw the photographs you took from our little jam session last week." His lips molded into a crooked grin when he saw Rinoa arch a brow in intrigue. "He wants to make a music video with us."

"Really?" Rinoa asked, impressed. "That's great! I don't think he's ever shot a music video before, at least not with a rock band."

"I think it'll be alright," Zell shrugged. "He's pretty talented—Squall, be nice."

Squall was scowling, his top lip up in an aggressive curl around his cigarette. With all eyes suddenly turned towards him he snapped out of it and tapped the tip of his cigarette outside the open window. "I'm always nice," he snarled.

Rinoa chuckled and nudged his calf with the toe of her sandal. "I take it you know him?" she deduced, scrunching her nose in laughter as Squall responded with a quiet snarl.

"Seifer? Oh yeah, we all know him," Zell answered. "He grew up in Balamb with us. We've known that fucker since grade school. We all went to the same high school too until Squall left for Balamb Garden right before the start of our final year."

"Ah." She looked back over to Squall and tilted her head and she spun back and forth in her seat. "You all grew up together but it sounds like you don't like him at all."

Squall let out short laugh. "We've had our differences."

It was Quistis' turn to laugh now. "_Differences_ he says!" she smacked her palm on her thigh and pointed at Rinoa. "Honey, let me tell you, those two were _always_ going at it." When Squall slowly turned his face towards her with a warning glare, she corrected herself: "Ok, ok…_Seifer_ was always going at it with Squall. For some reason he was always picking on him, starting fights with him, you name it."

While Squall just leaned against the wall he watched on as Quistis continued her explanation on why he and Seifer didn't quite get along. It wasn't that he 'didn't like' Seifer, he more so tolerated his existence by trying to ignore him or be civil with him when the occasion called for it.

"And even though Squall would just ignore him and wouldn't even instigate a conversation, Seifer would always find some way to rile Squall up," Quistis said, echoing Squall's thoughts. "It's how he got this," she said, tapping the space between her eyes.

Rinoa's eyes widened as realization struck her. "I _knew_ I had seen that scar before!" she exclaimed, snapping her fingers and pointing at Squall. "Seifer's got the same one—"

Squall's eyes darkened as he slowly turned them towards Rinoa. "They are not the same."

The stern coldness in his words forced Rinoa to clamp her lips shut. Momentarily. "Ok, not the _same_ but similar. You told me you got it in a fight—you guys fight with knives often?" She cringed at the thought. "The hell kind of school did you go to before Garden?"

"What—? It wasn't at school."

"Then what the hell happened?"

Squall groaned and tossed his finished cigarette out the window. "My sister collects swords. One day Seifer was over because I got stuck with him as a partner for some school project. Like a dumbass he decided to start playing with one of the swords, I tried to stop him, we got into it…then this happened." He pointed to the scar and then shrugged his shoulders. "Seifer is not one to take the word 'no' seriously."

Rinoa clicked her tongue and nodded at the explanation. "Ah. How old were you guys?"

"I dunno, like sixteen or something," Squall shrugged. "I just remember I had to make up some bullshit story at the hospital because child services tried to get involved."

Edea rapped her knuckles along the smooth surface of the coffee table. "Now, now," she said with her breathy and soothing voice. "Let's all play nice, children. This is a wonderful opportunity for the band, Squall, you can put your personal feelings aside for a short time if it means receiving a top notch video recording in return."

Cid chuckled as he watched Squall casually rub his eyebrow with only his middle finger raised. "If he tries to come at you with a sword again we will run interference," he promised.

Squall nodded and sent the older man a sarcastic grin. "Yeah, thanks."

"Any word on that prospective tour?" Zell asked.

"Not yet," Cid answered. "Still getting all the details but once I have the numbers run I will let you know!" He glanced down to his watch and gestured to Edea. "Alright kiddos," he said, standing to his feet. "That's it for today. Maybe get some practice in before your gig on Saturday."

"I brought my camera!" Rinoa said, jumping out of her seat as she started for her bag. "I figure we'll get some more quick photos of you guys with your instruments? You know, since we're all here!" She grinned widely as they all started to form around their separate pieces.

Squall walked by her and gave a nudge to her waist. "It's strapped to your hip, isn't it?"

Rinoa smiled at him and instantly started snapping away. "It's an extension of me," she said. "You off all people should understand that." She let out a small laugh as he sat himself down onto his throne, his sticks twirling between his fingers as he gave her a wry grin.

Cid and Edea said their goodbyes and once the door closed behind them, Squall slammed his sticks onto the skins, shaking everyone to the bone. Zell strapped on his guitar and jumped in front of Squall's kit, his tongue hanging out and his fingers furiously skimming over the seven strings.

* * *

Before they knew it the sun was beginning to set. Selphie had already shown up and her mouth dropped open when she discovered that they had Rinoa in the studio for over seven hours and had yet to feed her. "What the hell guys?" she demanded. "She's not like you and can go hours without eating!"

"Why didn't you say something?" Quistis asked, her face twisted in immediate concern. "We could have stopped and got something!"

"Sorry! I just didn't want to interrupt, you guys were totally in the zone and I know you guys need to practice before your show…"

Quistis placed her hands on her hips and huffed. "Excuses! Well then, I suggest we all go out tonight. We fucking deserve it."

"We sure do. I just can't stay out too late," Zell said with a sigh. "I've got work early tomorrow."

"Me too," echoed Squall. "You can crash at my place if you have to."

"It's settled then," Irvine cried with excitement and slapped his palms together. "We're gonna go out, feed our poor little photographer, get fucking wasted, and call it an early night." He looped an arm around Selphie's waist and pulled her in close for a kiss. When she avoided his lips and shot him an 'angry' face, he pouted. "I'm sorry. I promise we will take better care of our photographer."

Selphie prodded his chest with her nail. "You need to take better responsibility with her!"

Rinoa's lips pressed together in amusement as the two bickered about her as if she were a newborn puppy. "I know right?" she said. "I mean, I'm really easy to take care of. It's not like you have to take me out on walks or anything."

"Just feed her and she'll be happy," Squall said over the squabbling between the couple. He laid his drumsticks on top of the tom and stood from his throne. "Seriously, all this girl wants is food."

Rinoa shrugged her shoulders and kicked up her leg in an innocent pose. "Food is good, you can never go wrong with giving me food."

* * *

They all went to Kupo's, one of Galbadia's local bar and grille. Absolute Lore had played there before back when live bands were able to play, however with the new remodel live bands were no longer permitted. Now the music was all done by a DJ but there was no dance floor so most people just danced at their tables.

When they walked in they immediately scored the long table close to the middle of the bar. Rinoa zeroed in on the menu and laid it flat on the table. "What's good here?" she asked.

"You've never been here?" Selphie asked.

"I don't think so," Rinoa said as she skimmed down the food list. "I've driven by it a few times but that's it."

Squall leaned over the table and flipped the menu's page. "Their buffalo wings are pretty good," he told her. "They also have boneless."

Quistis gave a suggestive shake of her hips and walked her fingers up the length of Rinoa's arm. "Oh I'm sure Rinoa has no issues with bones, isn't that right dear?"

Rinoa responded by blowing the blonde a kiss. "How you know me so well…" she purred. "I do like buffalo wings but these chicken fingers are kinda calling my name!" She closed the menu and tapped her nails along the table. "Yep! Those sound pretty damn amazing."

When the food came everyone dug into their orders. Rinoa practically inhaled her chicken fingers. She hadn't realized she was that hungry and then she remembered that she completely skipped Caraway's peace offering of breakfast and instead snacked on half of a Pop Tart as she waited for the cab to pick her up at her apartment. Already the first round of drinks were finished and Rinoa was beginning to feel a slight buzz creep up the length of her body. The music around her was loud, the radiating bodies around her pulsated heat, the atmosphere was just addicting.

The DJ switched over to another song, this one filled with electric guitar rather than electronic beats and scratches. A few patrons vocalized their enthusiasm.

"I fucking love this song!" Selphie lifted her arms high into the air and screamed.

Rinoa laughed and sucked down the rest of her drink. Already her ears were ringing, the DJ clearly had the volume on high. The walls shook and beneath her feet she could feel the vibrations of the bass. She clapped her hands and giggled as she watched Selphie dance in front of her Irvine.

The other girl tossed her hair and swiveled her hips in perfect rhythm to the song as she sang along. "_She wraps those hands around that pole/She licks those lips and off we go/She takes it off nice and slow/Cuz that's porn star dancing!_" When Irvine tried to pull her onto his lip she pushed him back down into his chair. Selphie turned towards Rinoa and grabbed her hands. "Dance with me bitches!" she shouted, pointing at Quistis as well.

Quistis slammed back a shot and jumped to her feet. Her arm wrapped around Rinoa's waist and forced her to stand. She shimmied and rolled her hips against Rinoa as she sang, "_She don't play nice, she makes me beg/She drops that dress around her legs/And I'm sittin' right by the stage for this/Porn star dancing!_"

Rinoa was hardly able to stand because she was laughing so much.

"Come on!" Quistis shouted, reaching around Rinoa to grab Irvine's beer.

"Hey!" he cried.

"Too slow!" she screamed back, throwing her head back as she down the rest of the bottle.

Irvine caught the attention of the waitress and ordered another round of drinks. He moved his chair so he sat beside Zell and Squall. The three watched as the three girls on the other side of the table moved their bodies against each other. His eyes moved along the undulating curves of Selphie's movements and he grinned. God he loved that woman. His tongue ran over his teeth as his eyes traveled over Quistis and Rinoa. The two were starting to catch the attention of a few men at the table behind them. Irvine looked over to Squall and smirked when he saw that the other man was completely entranced by Rinoa's dancing. To someone just passing by, the stare he aimed at Rinoa could easily be confused with an angry glare, but Irvine had known Squall long enough to tell the difference. Squall's jaw was set, the tiny cords in his throat jerked as he concentrated on Rinoa's movements. She twirled around in Quistis' arms a bit too roughly, the hem of her dress spinning and flashing just a quick hint of cheek. Squall's brow raised slightly and he gratefully accepted the new beer bottle the waitress brought him.

"Enjoying the show?" she asked with a grin.

"You know it," he answered, raising the bottle to his lips.

She rounded the table and set three bottles in front of the girls. She came beside Rinoa and Selphie and tapped their shoulders. "Make sure you girls get a tip!" she told them, pointing at the men across from them.

Selphie stopped dancing and leaned close to the waitress so she could place an order in her ear. The waitress shot her a mischievous grin and wagged an approving finger at her. "You got it!" she cried, snaking her way through the crowd to reach the bar.

Selphie arched her brow at Rinoa's questioning gaze and she ran her tongue over her top lip.

Rinoa paused and leaned forward. "Selphie…what'd you do?"

"Late birthday present!"

Quistis' jaw suddenly dropped open in an excited scream. "Yes!" she shouted. "Yes—fuck yes! I approve."

Rinoa glanced back and forth between the two flanking girls. "What the—my birthday was last month!"

"So? I wasn't there to celebrate so therefor it was null and void." Selphie stuck out her tongue and went to sit on Irvine's lap. She leaned in and whispered in his ear, earning a thunderous roar of laughter from him. He pointed at Rinoa and sent her a wide and cackling grin.

"I'm scared," Rinoa said, her eyes wide as she watched the couple stare at her with their leering smirks.

Quistis looped an arm around Rinoa's shoulders and pulled her back into her seat. "Oh, don't be scared! Trust me, you're going to _love _it."

As soon as the words had come out did the waitress return with a circular platter filled with shots. As the waitress started setting the shot glasses onto the table Rinoa saw what the "birthday present" was. The waitress set a rocks glass in front of Rinoa filled with birthday cake liqueur. Standing large and tall out of the glass was a thick straw covered with whipped cream in the shape of a penis.

Rinoa covered her mouth to keep herself from laughing. "Oh my god…Selphie!"

Squall reached forward and took hold of one of the shooters. "Take the shot!" he commanded.

Each one grabbed a shot and held it in the air. "Take the fucking shot!" Selphie screamed, pounding her knuckles onto the table.

Rinoa sucked in a deep breath and then threw her head back, her throat opening as she swallowed the shot whole. Everyone followed suit and they slammed their shot glasses onto the table.

"Now suck that dick!" Selphie demanded, pointing an aggressive finger to the whipped cream phallus in front of Rinoa. "Come on, I'll help you." She leaned over the table, pointedly curving her spine so her ass was on full display in her tight jeans for Irvine, and ran her finger up the length of the straw. She collected a dollop of the whipped cream and dabbed it onto her tongue.

Quistis scooped up a blob and immediately plopped it onto Rinoa's lips. While the other girl was busy giggling and trying to lick it off, Quistis shot a glance over to Squall and took note of how his eyes couldn't leave Rinoa's lips. "Rinoa! Suck it down!" She picked up the glass and held it to her. "Come on, we didn't know you for your birthday so we're making up for it now—take it!"

Rinoa took hold of the glass and took the straw into her mouth, not fully, but far enough to make Squall's eyes widen a fraction and make his imagination run wild. She sucked down the contents of her glass and pushed it away from her as she swallowed. She coughed, daintily patted her lips and displayed a glittering smile. "That's it for me!" she laughed.

"Aw, come on!" Irvine exclaimed. "The night's still young!"

Rinoa waved her hands at him. "No! No, I can't! I don't want to get sick, plus I drove here!"

Irvine nodded. "Alright, alright," he said. He glanced down at his watch and looked over to Squall. "You wanna continue this party at your place? Since it's right around the corner?" he asked. "Plus you have the set list and those papers I need to get sorted out tomorrow."

Squall shrugged. "Sure."

Quistis ran her finger over the straw of Rinoa's glass, collecting the remaining whipped cream and eating it. "Are you ok to drive?" she asked Rinoa.

Squall held out his hands. "Give me your keys," he said. "I'm fine, I'll drive you."

"But what about your car?"

"Zell drove me to the studio, my car's at the apartment right now."

Irvine picked up the tab and gestured to Quistis. "Ride with Zell, when it's time to leave me and Selphie will bring you back to your car."

"Okie dokie." Quistis wasn't even going to attempt at trying to figure out the exact schematics of this car situation. If it meant that she didn't have to drive right at that moment, she was perfectly fine to go along with it. She shuffled her way over to Zell and threw her arms around his shoulders. "Carry me!"

Zell sighed and dragged her along. "Woman!"

Irvine shook his head at the two blondes as the waitress brought back his card. "Those two…" he sighed. "They're fucking crazy."

In the parking lot, Squall pulled open Rinoa's car door and glared at how far up the seat was pulled. "What, do you drive with your chin on the steering wheel?" he asked, pushing the seat as far back as it would go.

Rinoa made a face as she stumbled into the passenger side. "Excuse you!" she cried. "I'm short!"

Squall turned the car on and sent Rinoa a look as she struggled with her seat belt. "Are you drunk?" he asked.

Rinoa turned to look at him with her lips curled up into a huffy snarl. "_No,_" she snapped. "But am I in that nice and toasty little realm between buzzed and drunk? Yes. Yes I am." She turned her attention back to her jammed seat belt and growled. "Stupid thing!"

Shaking his head, Squall leaned over the center console and slapped her hands away. "Stop it," he urged. "You're just making it worse." His fingers gripped the buckle firmly and pulled the belt across Rinoa's front. As if to check the belt's pull, he held the belt between his thumb and forefinger and slowly ran his fingers down its embroidered surface before snapping it into place. His knuckles brushed over Rinoa's hip while doing so and he lifted his eyes so they locked with hers. "Safety first," he said roughly.

She responded by narrowing her eyes at him. "Whatever," she said, sticking her tongue out in defiance.

His eyes dipped down to that little pink muscle and she felt a spark of heat bloom deep within her belly. She felt her heart beat spike. For a split moment she thought that he was going to lean in and claim her mouth like he had the night before. It seemed that the thought had crossed his mind but a car door slamming caught his attention and he turned away. He leaned further and grabbed the passenger's handle and closed the door shut.

* * *

Selphie groaned and rubbed her eyes, completely forgetting that she was wearing mascara. When she saw the black smudges on her knuckles she pouted. "Dammit." She sat up and turned to look at Rinoa.

For the last hour and a half she and Rinoa were laying on Squall's bed talking about how Rinoa had to go pick up her father from the bar. "I know he's spiraling downwards again," Rinoa groaned, tenderly massaging her temples. "I don't feel like I have to send cops over for welfare checks but I don't know what to do so we don't have to get to that point."

Selphie made a face and placed a tender hand on Rinoa's shoulder. "I don't know sweetie," she whispered. "I can talk to some of the people I work with, some of them do volunteer programs for people in rehabilitation. But whatever happens, I'm here for you and I will do anything that I can."

Rinoa leaned in and gave a tight squeeze around Selphie's waist. "Thank you," she said. "I'm so glad we started talking again."

"Me too!" She looked over to where the bandmates were sitting in the living room having a lengthy and detailed conversation about Saturday's show. "I'm so glad that I have someone else to hang out with when they get into band-mode. Now I won't be alone!"

When Rinoa told Selphie about her exciting Wednesday night picking up her father from the bar, she had left out the part of how she and Squall had made out against the kitchen counter. She wasn't entirely sure why she didn't speak about it, after all, they were all adults, but for some reason she didn't want to make a big fuss about it. Selphie was the singer's girlfriend, and if whatever it was that could be happening between Rinoa and Squall ended up _not_ happening, she didn't want any rift to come between any of them. She would want them all to be able to carry on and continue with their lives professionally. Plus, after their conversation about his "situation" with Kendra, she felt that he made it pretty clear about how he stood with relationships. For him, the band would come first; for her, her photography came first. Perhaps they would be able to meet somewhere in the middle? She figured they would just take it day by day and see where it lead. Her thumb rubbed over her bottom lip as she contemplated.

* * *

After about another hour Irvine stood from his seat and stretched his arms. "I think it may be time to head out…" he said, glancing over to Squall's bed and seeing the two girls fast asleep. "I think Selphie's drooling on your pillow."

Squall glanced over. "Laundry day tomorrow then," he said, picking up his empty beer bottle from the table.

Quistis finished the rest of her glass of water and stood to place it into the sink. "Yeah…I am beat," she groaned. "Definitely excited for Saturday though."

"Oh yeah, it's gonna be a blast." Irvine walked over to Squall's bed and gently shook Selphie's shoulder. "Hey, babe, wake up," he said softly. "It's time to go. Wakey wakey."

Selphie mumbled some sort of obscenity and rolled onto her stomach. Her eyes squinted open and she frowned at the man above her. "Ugh…what time is it?" she muttered, rubbing her eyes and smearing her mascara even further.

"Just after midnight," Irvine chuckled, smiling at the black smudges that surrounded her eyes.

With a rumbling sigh Selphie sat up and looked over to Rinoa whose face was practically smothered into Squall's pillow. She poked the other girl's shoulder until she noticed movement. "Hey, you want us to take you to your car?"

Rinoa answered with an incomprehensible groan. "…s…'ere Selphie," she mumbled, her hand gently smacking the pillow.

"Eh?" Selphie blinked and looked up at Squall, hardly able to keep her eyes open. "What'd she say?"

Squall tossed his empty bottle into the recycling bin. "Her car's here," he said. "I drove it here, remember?"

"Oh…shit, that's right." Selphie leaned back over Rinoa's face and poked her cheek. "You're not driving!" she said. "You ok to stay here?"

Rinoa's response was only her grabbing the pillow and covering her face with it.

"I'll take that as a yes," Irvine laughed. "Shit, she's almost as grumpy as Squall when you try to wake him up!" He quickly dodged a right hook from Squall and danced a few steps back. "She'll be fine," he said to Selphie. "I think Zell's out for the count too."

Selphie stood to her feet and stretched her arms high overhead. "Yeah, just make sure she's ok to drive when she wakes up?" she asked Squall.

"Of course."

Selphie gave Squall an affectionate pinch to his bicep and waved as she walked toward the front door. "Same with Zell," she added, pointing towards the pair of tangled legs that hung over the arm of the couch. "Night, Squall. Come on Quistis, we can cuddle in the backseat."

"Sweet," the blonde murmured through a yawn. "Later." She waved her fingers at Squall as she followed the smaller girl out the door.

Squall nodded his farewell to Irvine as the cowboy began to lead the ladies out of the apartment. "Night." He locked the door behind them and headed into the bathroom. He quickly brushed his teeth and changed into a pair of plaid sweats and black sleeveless undershirt.

He tossed a spare blanket onto Zell before making his way over to his bed. When he stood at the bed he looked down at the woman in it. Despite the massive space of the King-sized bed, she managed to position herself nearly diagonally so she took up the entire surface. _Are you fucking kidding me? _he thought. How did someone so tiny take up so much room?

He rounded the bed and entered from the left side. Gently he tried to maneuver her so she would be on one side of the mattress. She moaned in protest and smacked at his hands. "No," she muttered.

"You're on my side," he said. "Move."

Rinoa made an annoyed sound within her throat and rolled over, taking the blankets with her.

Squall exhaled a snarl through his nostrils and massaged the skin between his eyes. He turned off the light and climbed into the bed. She was lucky she only took the comforter hostage and left him with the bedsheets. He watched the silhouette of her body in the moon light that seeped through the blinds, listened to the velvety noises she made in her sleep as she breathed in and out.

A quiet smile touched the corner of his lips before he finally closed his eyes.

* * *

_**"Porn Star Dancing" music and lyrics by My Darkest Days**_


	9. Chapter 9

Rinoa opened her eyes and groaned at the shrieking noise that awoke her. "What the hell is that?" she mumbled, her eyes hardly able to adjust to the dark. She rose to her elbows and tried to glance around. For a split moment she forgot where she was and her eyelids fluttered as she tried to gather her thoughts. "This isn't my house," she muttered. Though it did look familiar…

A slow shifting movement to her right snatched her attention and she turned in time to see Squall's muscular arm reach out and hook over her waist to bring her back down to bed. "Five more minutes…" he muttered, his face still buried into the pillow.

"Wha…?"

Suddenly the events of the night prior raced back to her. They had partied at the bar until a little after ten and then came back to Squall's apartment. While the band sat on the couch and discussed the upcoming show, she and Selphie hung out on his bed until…well until she passed out she assumed.

She wriggled beneath Squall's arms and tried to sit up, determined to find the origin of the annoying electronic chirping. It didn't sound like her phone's alarm…perhaps it was Squall's? She began to poke his ribs with her nails to get his attention.

His response was to tighten his arm around her waist and pull her in closer. "I said five more minutes," he growled, lifting up on his other arm in some half-assed one-armed push-up and practically pulled her beneath him. Before she could squeal in protest he flattened himself on top of her, his face instantly in her hair. "No," he said, his voice muffled. "I have at least ten minutes before I have to get up."

Rinoa chuckled and smacked his shoulder, her heart skipping a beat when she realized the skin was bare. "Then turn your damn alarm off!" she said, her fingers poking and prodding the warm and naked skin of his arms. Beneath her fingertips she felt the slight rough textures of old scars. As he made an annoyed sigh she felt his hot breath against the slope of her shoulder and she clamped her lips shut to keep in a moan.

"No," he said.

"Do it," she countered.

Squall shook his head and bit down on her shoulder, earning a sharp squeal from her. "Nope." His arms tightened around her and he moved his legs so they surrounded her thighs, trapping her beneath him. "Can't do it."

Her nails dug into his skin and she quietly laughed, her nose scrunching as Squall's stubble rasped against her cheek. And here she thought he was grumpy in the mornings…at least, that was what Irvine had mentioned before.

Suddenly the light turned on and Rinoa froze. Squall rose onto his forearms and lifted his head. Beside the bed was Zell, who was sleepily rubbing his eyes while grabbing Squall's phone from the nightstand. "Thanks for the wakeup call," he said in the midst of a yawn. "Completely forgot to set my alarm." He quickly disabled the alarm and soon the apartment was filled with thick silence. Casually he set the phone back down onto Squall's nightstand and headed back towards the couch. "As you were," he called. "I'm gonna take a piss." Before he made his way to the bathroom he stopped by the kitchen and quickly set up the coffee machine. "Did you want any coffee, Rinoa?"

"Uh…no, I'm probably just gonna go back to bed after I leave," she replied, her cheeks feeling warm. Squall was still on top of her, his arms still barricaded her body, her hands were still firmly grasping his shoulders, and she was still trapped beneath his legs.

Zell nodded and set up the machine. "Gotcha."

Squall listened to Zell walk away and close the bathroom door. With a groan he rolled off of Rinoa and sat at the edge of the bed, his fingers running through his hair.

"What time is it?" Rinoa asked, adjusting her dress beneath the covers. Keeping the comforter over her body for decency, she slid out the opposite side of the bed and pulled the hemline of her dress down to her thighs.

"Just after six," Squall answered, standing to his feet with a throaty groan. He looked over at Rinoa as he stretched his arms and scratched the back of his head. He had to admit, he definitely enjoyed the sight of her rumpled with her hair a mess from rolling around in the bed. She was adjusting her dress and his gaze lazily dipped over the curves of her body. Before Rinoa could lift her head and catch him staring, he rubbed his eyes and walked towards the kitchen. "You sure you don't want any?" he asked while pouring himself a cup.

"I'm sure. I'm just gonna go back to bed anyways," she repeated through a thick yawn.

Squall turned around and moved forward to the center island. He guzzled some coffee before setting the mug onto the countertop. He rubbed his eye with the heel of his palm and rested his hands on the counter before looking to Rinoa. "Sorry to wake you up so early," he said. "But I've got work." He nearly grinned at the familiarity of the situation but frowned when he noticed that Rinoa was staring at the center island. "Something wrong?"

Rinoa snapped her eyes to meet his for a brief moment before walking towards the kitchen to grab her purse from the barstool. "Sorry, still waking up." She looped the strap over her shoulder and glanced at the bed. With a small shake of her shoulders she turned a sheepish smile to him. "Sorry to commandeer your bed last night," she laughed. "I hope I wasn't too much of a bother for you."

"You hog the blankets," he said over the rim of his mug.

Rinoa brushed her thumb over her bottom lip as she chuckled. "Sorry," she said again, though her eyes sparkled with mischief that clearly stated that she was not sorry in the least.

"You also move around a lot in your sleep."

"Well…when you sleep alone for so long you get used to having the whole bed to yourself!"

The corner of Squall's lips twitched. "And you snore."

Rinoa's jaw dropped and she rounded the island to give him a playful jab to the shoulder. "I do not!" she cried.

Their hands wrestled with each other for a moment as Rinoa continuously tried to land another jab or pinch, but Squall's skills at evading attacks were far superior to her skills at making contact. "How would you know? You've been sleeping alone a long time, haven't you?" he asked, his hands skillfully taking hold of her wrists and bringing them into a point across her chest. He was about to pull her to him when Zell emerged from the hallway.

"I'm not even here," the blonde said, instantly making a beeline to the coffee machine.

Rinoa broke into laughter and stepped back when Squall released her hands. "Alright," she grinned. "I'm out of here. See you guys tomorrow!"

Zell turned and took a long swallow from his coffee. "So, what's our plan with that? Are we meeting you there? You riding with one of us?"

Rinoa shrugged. "Haven't quite figured that part out yet. I'll probably talk to Selphie and see if she wants to ride with me since you guys will all probably ride in Irvine's Pathfinder since it's the biggest."

"Well, Squall and Irvine usually ride together since he has to lay the backseats flat to fit Squall's kit. Quistis and I normally ride with the amps and merchandise."

"Seifer said he's getting there at around seven," Squall told them.

Rinoa made a face. "Why so early? You guys don't go on until ten."

Squall shrugged and cracked his neck. "Apparently he wants to do some sort of interview for our web page, a little behind the scenes of the band life."

"Alright, well…I'll catch up with Selphie later and see what she wants to do." Rinoa fished her keys from her purse and waved. "Later."

Politely, Zell waited until he heard the click of the door close before he cupped his chin between his hands and leaned his elbows onto the countertop. "Were you two having a moment?" he teased, batting his lashes. "Did I cock block you? Were you getting mushy gushy?"

Squall only sighed and placed his empty mug into the sink. "I'm going to take a shower," he announced. "Lock up behind you when you leave."

Zell took the hint but lightly chuckled, his eyes glinting with mischief-filled playfulness. "Cold shower right?" His chuckle turned into a full on guffaw when Squall shot him a dangerous look. "Oh come on," he teased. "Don't get all butt hurt."

"Zell," Squall warned, already making his way towards the bathroom. "Your ass better be out of here by the time I get out."

"I'm going, I'm going." Zell scooped up his keys from the couch and followed Squall to the door. As he placed a hand on the doorknob he sent Squall another teasing smirk. "You want me to catch up to her in the parking lot and send her up to wash your back?"

Squall's shoulders dropped and he slowly turned around. His fists were curled and ready to be thrown, but the other man had already slunk out the door, leaving behind an echo of his boisterous laughter.

* * *

As Rinoa drove she was so thankful that the streets were still fairly empty thanks to the early time. Squall's apartment was close to a freeway's offramp so she had heard him speak about traffic that collected in the area but that the majority of it was usually at the onramp, which was a few blocks further down.

As she sat at a red light she allowed her mind to wander back to the little play fight she had with Squall in the kitchen. He had caught her staring. Even though he may not had known exactly what she was staring at, she was still flustered at the thought of being caught. She had been staring at the center island that he had had her pinned against, but she wasn't thinking about that night—not entirely. His pelvis had perfectly lined up with the countertop's surface, and if he had lifted her up onto the counter that night it would have put her at the perfect height for his…

Rinoa shook her head and moved her car along as the light turned green. _Fuck! Has it been that long?_ she thought to herself. The thought surprised her. How long _had_ it been? She wasn't a fan of one night stands, but she had come across men that she only wanted a few times before she decided that it wasn't worth it. She wasn't looking for the _one._ She wasn't looking for love. Rinoa was the type who figured that it would happen with it happened.

When she lived in Timber there was a very small number of men that she dated, mostly because her relationships hardly went further than a few coffee dates and flirtatious texts due to her busy schedule. Some men couldn't wait, and that was fine. Let's see…there was Franklin, who was an editor of Timber's local magazine she had done a real estate photoshoot for; after him was Daniel, who worked at the coffee shop she had frequented almost on a daily; and after him was Sei…

Rinoa grimaced. _Shit._

* * *

Squall entered through the sliding glass doors of the hospital. He made the routine turn to the right and slid in his identification card to be granted passage. "Morning," he nodded to one of the nurses who approached him. "Where is she?"

"Break room," came the response. "Probably taking a quick nap."

"What's her shift today?"

"Eighteen hour, I think she just finished up her first nine."

Squall nodded and proceeded to the break room. There he found her sprawled out across the couch with her arm draped over her eyes. Her scrubs were crinkled and there even seemed to be a smear of blood across the tops of her shoes. He crouched down to the edge of the couch and nudged her with his elbow.

"Hmm?" Her arm slid downwards to rest across her belly and she turned her face, her eyes slowly focusing Squall. "Shit, is it eight already?" With a soft groan she moved to sit up straight.

"You're not sleeping enough," he stated.

Ellone laughed and gave him a shove with the heel of her palm. "Don't give me that," she said. "I won't have my little brother patronize me." She stood from the couch and cracked her neck. "Is that for me?" she grumbled, pointing to the cardboard cup that Squall held in his hands.

He handed her the cup and watched her sip from it. "Are you joining the classes today or are you just going to supervise?"

She jerked her head to the side and motioned for him to follow. "I have an appointment with that soldier I was telling you about the other week. The bio-medically engineered prosthetic finally came in so we're going to attach it today."

They approached the wing where Squall worked and Ellone took another quick gulp to finish her drink. "Thanks for the coffee," she said. She was about to hurry away when she suddenly paused, her brow arching as she actually looked at her brother. Now that she was fully awake and caffeine was coursing through her system…she noticed something. "Something's different." She ran her fingers through Squall's hair and placed the back of her fingers against his forehead as if to feel for a fever. "What's going on, little brother?"

He narrowed his eyes at her belittling tone and hastily removed her hand from him. "The fuck are you talking about?" he snapped.

Ellone laughed at his outrage—it was his dead giveaway that she hit something on the head, normally he never lashed out at her—and threw her empty cup into the garbage can. "Something's different," she repeated, adjusting her ponytail so her chocolate brown hair stayed in place. "What's different about you? What's going on in your life?"

He lifted his shoulders in indifference. "My show's tomorrow."

Ellone shook her head, her gaze scrutinizing his every move. "No," she whispered. "That's not it. You've played countless shows, this next one isn't any different to you."

"This one is being professionally photographed and recorded for a music video."

His sister scoffed and rolled her eyes. "No…that's not it either." She sighed and straightened out her scrubs. "I'll figure it out, you'll see," she promised before glancing down at the gold watch around her wrist and tapping the glass face. "So, my appointment is at eight-thirty…once I have his new prosthetic in place I'm bringing him over to you so you can evaluate him to see when he can start training with you."

"Alright, sounds good." He turned away to head down the hallway that led to his unit but was stopped when he heard the sound of Ellone snapping her fingers.

"It's a woman!"

Squall paused in his tracks and slowly turned his head to look at Ellone over his shoulder. "What?"

Her arms were crossed over her breasts and her lips were upturned into a triumphant smirk. "I knew something was different. Is there a new lady in your life, baby brother?" When he wouldn't stop glaring she tilted her head. "Or perhaps an old flame?" Her dark eyes widened and despite the dark circles that marred the skin beneath them, she looked youthful and giddy with mischief. "Is it Kendra? I did like her…"

Squall sighed and turned away to continue walking. "It's not Kendra."

"So there _is_ someone!"

"No." He pulled on the handle and entered his area of the gym that was used for physical therapy. He nodded to Dr. Kadowaki whom he partnered with. Together they ran the portion of the physical therapy ward that specialized in working with soldiers that had lost limbs in combat. Ellone worked with biomedical engineers who created prosthetics especially for these people. After they were fitted and able to stand, Squall and Kadowaki worked with them to get them back into fighting condition. Some of them chose to continue their careers with their own personal branch of the military while others accepted honorable discharge and went on with their lives. Either way, Squall worked with them so that they were able to exercise on their own.

"Today you are working with Lee," said Kadowaki. "He says he's feeling more confident with the usage of his arm but wants to work more with his hand to hand combat. He feels the punches he throws with his right arm aren't as coordinated as with his left."

Squall nodded as he listened to Kadowaki read over the day's itinerary. He pulled his shirt over his head and folded it neatly into his locker. "What time is he getting here?" he asked, already taping up his wrist.

"Any minute now."

He straightened out his gray running tank top and began to warm himself up by throwing a few punches to the sand bag in the corner. He had worked with Lee almost on a weekly basis for the last six months. Lee was twenty-one and lost his arm during an explosion that took out the helicopter he and his squad were riding. Only Lee and the pilot had survived.

Along with relearning how to fight with his new arm, Lee was dealing with survivor's guilt and a case of PTSD. During one of their sessions the younger man sat with Squall and looked up at him with pain in his eyes. _"How do you get over it?"_ he had asked_. "How do you silence the screams that wake you up at night and then you look around and see nothing is there?"_

_"__You don't," _Squall had answered. _"It's a part of you and it will always be a part of you. You just learn to take it day by day and before long the screams grow quieter and quieter—never fully gone, but…more bearable."_

It wasn't what the younger man had wanted to hear but it was the truth—at least, it was for Squall. The truth was that the screaming never went away, he simply learned how to drown it out. For him, it was drumming. He had always been a drummer, ever since he was a little kid, it had always been a hobby and a passion of his. Now, as an adult, it was his sanctuary. It was an escape for him to take out any aggression and frustration, it allowed him to be free and just _move_. Drumming meant more to him than anyone could ever realize.

It was, as Rinoa had so perfectly stated, an extension on him.

* * *

Rinoa blinked at the flower arrangement that awaited her at her apartment's landing. It was withered, the buds wilting and the stalks nearly reaching their breaking point. Clearly it had been there since yesterday. She crouched down and picked up the card that stood from the vase. It must have arrived just after she had left for the studio.

Her eyes scanned over the scrawled handwriting.

_I'm sorry_

_—__Dad _

With a sigh she unlocked her apartment door and took in the poor, sad little bouquet with her. She unlaced her sandals and set the vase onto her kitchen counter and stared at it. It looked so pitiful, but she was sure it had looked ten times better when it had first come. They were tulips in a vast array of colors. Though severely wilted, their colors or pink and orange still brightly popped.

She couldn't stay angry with him. She couldn't hate him. But that didn't mean she had to necessarily _like_ him either. He was her father, the only family she had in this world. Both he and her mother were only children and all of Rinoa's grandparents had long since passed away. Many children of the military had "uncles," comrades of the father who fought alongside during the wars. However, due to the nature of the job, many of Caraway's comrades died in battle. For so long she knew that he was the only family that she had, sometimes she forgot that _she_ was indeed the only one he had left as well.

_Is it why you moved back? _Squall had asked her.

Her lips twisted as she thought back to the conversation. She exhaled hotly through her nose in annoyance at his ability to see through her. Because he was right, it really was the true reason. After all, Caraway was her father. He was trying, perhaps not very hard, but there was an attempt. He had never sent her flowers before, he hardly ever apologized…and he had said that he was sorry _twice_ in the last few days.

There was no salvaging the poor flowers. She poured out the remaining water into the sink and with a heavy sigh dropped the withered tulips into the garbage. "I'm sure they were lovely," she whispered.

As she walked down the hallway to her room, she pulled the dress up over her head and left it as a puddle of burgundy fabric in the middle of the hall. She entered her bedroom in only her simple black bra and boy-shorts styled panties with a rose and thorn print.

She practically dove into her bed, her face smothered into her pillow.

* * *

She woke up a little after ten to the sound of her phone jingling. With a grunt she flopped her arm over the side of the bed and fished through her purse. When her fingers wrapped around the damned contraption she pulled it up to her ear and flipped over onto her back.

"Hello?"

"What's this I hear about you being in town for barely a week and already you have a paying gig? Aren't you supposed to be on vacation?" said the voice on the other line.

Rinoa laughed and closed her eyes as she listened to the familiar voice. "Yes, Zone, technically I am on vacation…but you know I can never stay away from working for too long. Besides, this gig is pretty fun."

"I can see that," he said. "I'm looking at the pictures you posted—stunning, as always."

"Why thank you."

"Well, if your new job doesn't keep you out too late, I'd like for you to come over by the studio and pick out the colors for your new office and cards."

Rinoa's eyes opened. _Shit…that's right, the new studio is supposed to open up in three weeks. _"Eh, you know what colors I like. Make Watts do it for me."

Zone practically guffawed. "You sure about that, princess? You remember the last time he picked out colors for you."

Rinoa's lips curled into a snarl. Watts had made everything pink. It was a vomit-inducing splash of hot pink with pearls and frills…and that was just her business card. "Ugh…_fine._ I'll design my own cards with the new logo and e-mail it to you within the next few days, you can base my office décor off of that."

"Sounds like a plan. Are you able to come over anyway? Or do you have a hot date for this fine Friday evening?"

Rinoa could practically envision Zone wagging his eyebrows at her. "Ha ha," she muttered. "No, no date, but I do have to prepare for this shoot that I have scheduled tomorrow."

"For the band?"

"Yeah, I was hired to photograph the whole set and I've just learned that Hyperion Images is going to do their videography. So I probably have to get there early to figure out good vantage points and check out their lighting since I doubt I'll be allowed to bring any of my reflectors." At least Absolute Lore was headlining that night, she would be able to take a few practice shots on the bands before them and gauge from there.

Zone fell quiet for a moment. "…Hyperion Images?"

Rinoa took in a slow breath through her nose and nodded. "Yep."

"Isn't that…? Oh. Oh, well…" He clicked his tongue. "You have fun with that."

She laughed and absently ran a finger over her collarbone. "Yeah, I'm it'll be interesting. But I'm sure it will be professional. After all, tomorrow night is all about setting the stage for Absolute Lore, not personal issues."

"Well, I still can't believe he never called you back," Zone said in a huff. "For him to give up a drop dead gorgeous woman like you is just criminal!"

Rinoa rolled her eyes but smiled at his words. "I appreciate the compliment, Zone, but if all he desired from me was my looks then I am glad that he never called. Besides, it's been like a year, there's no point in holding a grudge."

"Yeah, but—"

"Zone!" Rinoa cried, trying so hard to hold in her laughter. "You sound more upset over it than I ever was!"

"Ok, ok!" he whined. "On another note, how long are you going to be photographing this band?"

Rinoa paused. "Not sure," she answered. "Right now we're just doing a pay as you go type of thing. After tomorrow's show, I'm not sure what they'd need me for."

"I'm just asking since you start here at the studio in the middle of May. Would they like to continue a contract with us? Then that way you'll also have more resources and manpower in case they want more extravagant shoots."

"I'm sure they'd like to," Rinoa shrugged. "I hope so anyway…I know _I'd _like to continue working with them. Plus, it'd look good for the studio's resume. Can you imagine? Our portfolio would be star-studded."

Zone enthusiastically agreed. They wrapped up the conversation and he told her to keep him informed as to whether or not Absolute Lore wanted to continue doing business with them so as to keep Rinoa as their photographer.

Rinoa rose from her bed and walked into the den, booting up her computer. As the hours ticked by she busied herself with editing the photographs so they were ready to be uploaded onto the page. As she sipped from her water bottle she let her eyes scan over the shot she took of the group in front of the sunset. She smiled as she thought about how much fun she had been having this last week and a half with them. It would be such a shame if it would really come to an end.

She truly wondered if they would decide to keep her as their photographer. In the last week she had most definitely taken more than enough professional shots to last them for a while, and then with tomorrow's show…there really wouldn't be much need for her after that. _My skills, anyway,_ she corrected herself. She got along with the band, she would hope they would at least keep her as a friend.

Rinoa giggled to herself. What was she going to do? Clap her hands together and beg them to keep her like some sort of little puppy? She laughed at the mental image. Well…she and Selphie had reconnected, of course she was going to see the band again.

As she scrolled through a few more photographs she landed on an image of Squall. He was leaning along the broken concrete slabs, his left knee bent while his other leg was extended. His elbow rested upon the bent knee while his fingers were slightly raised, reaching for the cigarette that dangled from his lips. His steely gaze bore straight through the smoke that escaped through that stormy scowl of his.

Rinoa wet her lips. He was _delicious_, and she herself only had a small sample.

Her phone suddenly beeped and she jumped in her chair. She touched the screen and swallowed at the name that flashed. _Speak of the devil,_ she thought.

_S.L: Selphie said she'll pick you up at seven tomorrow._

Rinoa cocked her head. "Selphie couldn't tell me herself?" she mused aloud. With a shrug she picked up her phone and responded.

_R.H: Okie dokie =)_

_S.L: Did you end up taking a nap?_

_R.H: I did. Thanks again for letting me crash in your bed._

_S.L: Anytime._

_R.H: I don't snore, by the way. You lie._

_S.L: Yes you do. Loud._

Rinoa started laughing and shook her head at the screen. "You little fucker," she muttered.

_S.L: Like a train._

_R.H: Yeah well next time I'm going to record it to PROVE to you that you are lying. MEANIE!_

_S.L: Next time huh…I'll hold you to that._

Rinoa caught her bottom lip between her teeth and squirmed within her seat. She preened at the thought of _next time._ "Well…I suppose they will decide to keep me after the contract is over after all."


	10. Chapter 10

"Are you ready for tonight?" Selphie shrieked, bursting through Rinoa's door with arms up high. She practically skipped her way into Rinoa's living room after she kicked off her sandals. "What are you going to wear tonight? I brought a few outfits because I can't decide which to wear…"

Saturday night had finally come. It was the night of the show and the blood in Rinoa's veins sang with feverish excitement. She felt that she had been counting down the hours for Selphie to come over. They had spoken in the morning and Selphie had said she would arrive early so they could get ready together.

Rinoa smirked and brought Selphie to the bedroom so she could set up in front of the vanity. "Well, I'm going to be maneuvering around the whole venue and possibly climbing on things so…a skirt is definitely out!"

Selphie tossed her small duffle bag onto Rinoa's bed and dove into the closet to shuffle through the multitude of hanging clothes. "Who says you need to wear a skirt? You can still dress cute!"

"Uh…I could wear a potato sack and look _adorable_," Rinoa sang. She opened up Selphie's bag and filtered through the clothes. "What were you thinking of wearing?"

"Something sexy—_obviously,_" Selphie countered. "My honey-bun is the lead singer! I have to not only look the part but also I have to look better than any of those groupies that show up!"

Rinoa lifted up a pair of fashionably ripped denim shorts and looked over at Selphie. "Do you encounter that problem often?" she asked cautiously.

Selphie shrugged. "Sometimes," she said. "I mean, I can't be too mad because it's not like they _know_ he's spoken for. It's when they continue trying to pursue him _after_ he says he's involved with someone that I get upset." Selphie sent Rinoa a glittering smile. "Besides…he can't help it that he's so damn irresistible!"

* * *

"I think you took the term 'simplicity' too far to heart," Selphie pouted, her lips curled up in an unimpressed scowl as she ran her eyes over Rinoa's form. "I mean…you look great but come on! Dress up a little!" As if to solidify her statement, she fluffed up the gray lace skirt she wore.

With a huff Rinoa planted her hands on her hips and shot Selphie a look. It was easy for _her_ to say…Selphie not only had someone to dress up for, but she didn't have to _work_ tonight. Selphie had the role of the singer's girlfriend, she was to enjoy her night and look devastatingly gorgeous while the groupies coveted her position.

Rinoa pulled the zipper up over her breasts. The black crop top stopped just at the bend of her waist, exposing her flat belly. Her faded and ripped blue jeans hung low on her hips and she sat down to lace up her boots. She knew that it would be warm inside the venue—what with the multitude of bodies crammed inside a small space—but she also knew that the risk of her toes getting stepped on were very high so it was common knowledge to wear sturdy boots.

"Ugh…_fine_," Selphie muttered, rolling her eyes at the look that Rinoa sent her way. With a quick flip of her purse, Selphie emptied the contents, spilling cosmetics onto Rinoa's bed. "Do you have setting spray? Mine ran out and I keep forgetting to grab some."

Rinoa disappeared into her bathroom and rummaged through her makeup stash. Her hand wrapped around the slender spray bottle and she brought it to Selphie. Any photographer worth her salt knew that makeup setting spray was a must—_especially_ in an area where the model may become sweaty and the makeup would just melt off. "Are you doing your makeup all crazy today?"

Selphie shook her head and scooped up a few items before heading into the bathroom. "Not really, I'm thinking maybe just a simple smoky eye." As she started dabbing on her foundation she looked over to Rinoa who was leaning over the bathroom counter to get a good look in the mirror as she started drawing her winged liner. "You don't really wear a lot of makeup, do you?"

"On occasion," Rinoa said softly so as not to mess up her eyeliner. "Lately it's just been eyeliner and mascara." She loved makeup, she loved makeup shopping, and she loved how sometimes it was even considered an art form. However, lately she had been creating very basic and simple looks…mostly because it was less for her to wash off at the end of the night, she had a habit of forgetting to wash her face before bed.

* * *

As Irvine pulled up to the back entrance of the venue, Squall's eyes locked onto a blonde standing beside a gunmetal gray Hummer. He took note of the other man's team that consisted of three large and muscular men. Inwardly Squall made a face of confusion. Seifer's videographers looked more like meat heads one would meet at a gym rather than having an artistic career path. _I suppose you can't always assume, _he thought.

Almost as if hearing Squall's thoughts, Seifer turned and gestured toward Irvine's SUV. One of men behind him—the one with the dark hair that was pulled into a topknot—pulled up a camera and followed the SUV's movement as it parked.

Ever the charmer, Irvine rolled down his window and gave the camera a sly grin. "Well now," he said lowly. "How are you gentlemen this fine evening?"

Seifer chuckled and motioned for the camera to continue rolling. "You excited for tonight?" he asked.

Irvine removed his sunglasses and widened his grin into the most charming and dazzling smile he could muster. "It's all about the music," he said honestly. "We're just happy to be playing it. Isn't that right, Squall?" He turned over to his passenger and the camera swept its attention to him.

Squall simply gave the camera a nod while he reached for the door handle. As he exited the Pathfinder, Zell's red Toyota Tacoma pulled in.

The blonde had his head sticking out the window with his tongue hanging out. "Yeeeeeaaaah!" he screamed when he noticed that the cameras had now moved onto him. "Are you fucking ready for us?"

Quistis laughed and hopped out of the truck, adjusting the garters she had strapped around her thighs. Immediately a camera panned over to her and she sent it a shy smile. "When he says "us" he really means "him," as you can see…he's quite the handful."

Zell poked his head over the top of the truck as he stood on the door's ledge. "Aw, you love me," he grinned, puckering up his lips. He looked over to another car driving up and he waved them over. "Hey Nida!" he called. "Thanks for coming."

"You kidding?" said the other man. "All I have to do is help you set up your shit and I get to see a show for free—of course I'll be there!" Nida gestured to the others that came with him and they began to unload Zell and Irvine's cars.

Seifer came up and held out a hand to the three men behind him. "So, this is my team of Hyperion Images. This is Raijin, the co-owner," he said, placing a hand upon the shoulder of the very large man beside him.

"Pleasure," said Raijin, reaching out to shake the hands of the band members. "Seifer and I started this company fresh out of college with another buddy of ours. However, he left about a year after that to pursue other careers." He pointed at the two men who were aiming their cameras at Nida unloading Zell's truck. "Our two cameramen, Biggs and Wedge, they've been with us for about two years."

Irvine nodded at the cameramen and then gestured towards Nida and the friends he had brought. "This is Nida, James, Rourke, and Cal, they've been friends with Absolute Lore for many years. They come to every show and help up with our set up."

"Our roadies!" Quistis cried, wrapping her arms around Nida's neck when he handed her a bottle of water. "Our photographer will also be here soon," Quistis said, tilting her head back to drink from the bottle.

"Rinoa?"

Quistis arched a brow and swallowed the water. "How did you know her…oh, that's right, you worked with her in Esthar? She did mention something about partnering with Hyperion Images for an art gallery documentary?"

Seifer nodded and smiled. "Yes, we did! Well, Raijin and I, anyway. I've been off social media for a while, but I went back on about a week ago and came across the shots she released for your shoots with her."

"We've been thinking about branching out," Raijin added. "Adding some more credits to our resume. We've done interviews, documentaries, and even a short film…we thought making a music video would be a great addition to our expertise."

"Also, it helps that we all know each other," Seifer added with his charming smirk. "It's a business after all—you scratch our back we'll scratch yours." He walked over to Squall and slung an arm around his shoulders. "After all, what are friends for?"

* * *

Selphie and Rinoa entered the doors a little after eight-fifteen. Immediately they were struck with the vibrations of the powerful chords and riffs that exploded from the stage. Rinoa looked to the stage, her eyes scanning over the name of the band playing. It was someone she had never heard of, but they sounded pretty decent.

Selphie tucked her wallet back into her purse. "I'm gonna go find Irvine," she said. "They're all probably upstairs. You coming?"

"No," Rinoa said, letting her gaze roam around the corners of the venue. "I'm going to check out the area." Her eyes narrowed as she contemplated the best areas to shoot from. "In fact…I think I'm going to take a few test shots with the band that's on right now so I can gauge how I'm going to work Absolute Lore."

A twisted smirk came to Selphie's lips and she bumped Rinoa with her hip. "Oh, you're gonna _work_ them alright."

Rinoa gave Selphie a little pinch to the waist and shoved her aside. "Oh, go on, get out of here and find your little rock star boyfriend."

Selphie giggled and blew her a kiss. "I just want to see how their interview's going, I'll come back down and look for you in a little bit. Don't stray too far!"

Rinoa watched her weave through the crowd and traipse up the stairs. With her camera at the ready, Rinoa looked upwards and analyzed the lighting fixtures and where they were aimed. After a few moments of deliberation, she aimed her camera towards the stage and took a few shots. She checked the playback screen and nodded. "Got it," she murmured to herself triumphantly. She adjusted a few of the settings and raised the camera back up.

The lighting in the venue wasn't the best, but it was something she could work with. It took a little tweaking to her settings and a little maneuvering through the crowd…but she figured it out. After about thirty minutes of hopping from one corner of the floor to another, Rinoa figured out the best vantage points to shoot from that weren't front and center.

She lowered the camera and smiled as she watched the current band say their good-nights and shuffle off the stage. She glanced down at her watch, it was nearly nine. _The next band will go on and play about a forty-five minute set and then it's Absolute Lore at ten,_ she thought, turning away from the stage and walking off the floor so she could find a nice place to post up at until she was ready to work.

As she walked she noticed a familiar face walking up to her. Her jaw tightened as she struggled to keep a straight face. But there he was, with those devilish green eyes and a smirk that spoke of debauchery. _Oh lord, here we go…_

"Hey Rinoa," he said, offering a genuine and lazy grin. "It's been a while."

Rinoa sent him a warm smile and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. She had tried to mentally prepare herself for this moment, she had known that it was inevitable. Yet, even though she thought she had been ready, she knew she would probably make a rambling ass of herself. "It has!" she said. "A few months ago I actually saw the documentary from Esthar, great work!"

Seifer gave a toss of his head that was a move between cockiness and common knowledge. "Thank you," he said. "I think that job in Esthar had to have been my favorite one." His green eyes sparked with mischief as leaned forward a fraction closer to Rinoa.

She took note of the pointed remark, and even though their affair had long since ended, she felt a small trickle of warmth spread through her cheeks and gave a light laugh while she took a slight step back. "I'm sure it was," she responded. "That documentary certainly gave you a lot of exposure." She turned and waved her hand over the large crowd that filled the club. "And now you're going to shoot a video of an up and coming rock band, you're really getting your name out there!"

"True, but that wasn't what I meant." He placed a hand on her shoulder and slipped a card into her hand. When the card was safely between her fingers he stepped back and pointed a finger at her. "We gotta set up…I'll see you after the show? I'd like to catch up." Then he turned away and was gone.

Rinoa watched him walk off for a moment, then she turned around to face the crowd behind her. He had given her his business card. A quick glance told her that the number on it was his cell phone, the same number he had before. Her lip scowled for a brief instant as she remembered that she had texted him a few months after they had ended whatever it was that they had. He never responded and she of course chalked it up to that his number had most definitely changed. She tucked the business card away to her back pocket—she didn't want to be rude and throw it away right in front of him, she'd dispose of it later—and raised up her camera to start snapping shots of the crowd that was gathered in front of the stage to watch the next band set up their gear.

Her phone number was the exact same as well, it hadn't changed in at least four years. "The phone works both ways," she muttered under her breath as she focused her lenses onto a small group gathered in front of Absolute Lore's merch booth.

* * *

Squall lowered his beer when he saw Seifer practically saunter away from Rinoa with that cocky grin of his. Seifer was too full of himself to not even notice the scowl that rose on Rinoa's lips when she looked down at the card he had given her. Over the years Squall had become quite attuned to reading people's faces, and within the last week and a half of knowing Rinoa, he'd become fairly capable of reading her expressions as well. Even before Seifer had given Rinoa the card, Squall could see that behind the tight and polite smile she was uncomfortable and perhaps even a bit disappointed. She had fooled Squall—he had to give her that—when the first mention of working with Seifer had come up, she hadn't even blinked.

Seifer was already talking to a few of his workers, pointing at areas of the club that he had decided were great vantage points. Squall watched him take a quick glance at Rinoa, who was watching the band that was currently on stage with minimal interest. A slow and smug grin spread over Seifer's face before he turned his attention back to the man holding one of their many video cameras.

Finished with his beer, Squall left it on the table and maneuvered his way through the crowd. The band on the stage was just about to start their first song. His original intent was to make his way up the stairs to get into the band room and wait until it was their time to set up, but somehow he found himself standing beside Rinoa and gently touching her elbow.

"Hey!" she said, her smile widening when she saw that it was him beside her. "You excited? You guys will be going on soon."

He gave a slight nod. "Yeah, just trying to think of it as just another show and not live recorded evidence."

Rinoa bumped his hip with her own. "Oh, you'll do just fine. Just imagine everyone naked."

Squall glanced around at the growing crowd. "I don't think there's anyone here I'd want to imagine naked," he said with a grimace. Then he turned his head back to her and pointedly looked her up and down, taking his time. "Although…"

Rinoa gave a squeal and raised her camera, snapping a quick shot of him looking at her with eyes that oozed and dripped sexual prowess. She smirked when he narrowed his eyes at her and she pressed the play back button on her camera to view the gallery. "Oh…wow," she whispered, her eyes widening at the shot she had just taken of him. "Oh, this is _definitely_ going on the page." She lifted the camera up so he could view the screen. "You'll get all these bitches' panties wet!"

He gave a slight shake of his head and watched her aim her camera at random unsuspecting crowd patrons. "You and Seifer have history?" Squall asked.

The question came so out of left field that Rinoa jerked her head to glance at the blonde man in question who was now standing over by the bar. She lowered her lashes for a moment before locking eyes with Squall. "How did you—? Yes," she said quietly. "A brief history, but…yeah."

"Did it end badly?"

"Oh, no." Rinoa tilted her head as she thought back to the few months that she and Seifer were together. "It didn't really _end_ so much as just kind of…fizzled out. We met when I and my partner got hired to photograph an art show in Esthar. He and I went on a few dates while we were both in town for like a month. But then I went back to Timber and he stayed in Esthar. We only met up a few times after that. Apparently neither of us were made for that long-distance relationship kind of life."

"You know, you're good," Squall said.

Rinoa lifted her gaze back to his face, her brows furrowed as she tried to understand what he was saying. "Huh?" was all that came out.

"I'm usually pretty good at reading people. When the first mention of Seifer came up you didn't even flinch at his name," Squall explained. "But now that he's right here in front of you it's plain all over your face."

_Dammit,_ Rinoa cursed herself. "So?"

Squall shrugged his shoulders so casually that it somehow made Rinoa irritated. "So nothing," he said. "I was just wondering what was going on with you two."

Rinoa tried to read the expression that displayed across his face, but sadly she wasn't as talented at reading faces as he apparently was. He was just standing there, those steely blue eyes just staring into hers while those lips of his just remained closed but not tightly pressed or thinned out. The only slight hint of emotion she had from him was that his brows were lowered just barely enough to cause the scar to crinkle a bit. "Nothing is going on between us," Rinoa promised. "Do we have history, yes, but that's all it is. It was just a shock seeing him in person. I don't have very many former lovers and the ones that I do have I have not seen since we parted ways, so seeing an ex is a little off-putting and foreign to me."

Squall gave a nod to her reasoning and softly tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ears. "I was just wondering," he repeated. "I didn't really need an explanation, but thank you." At the sight of Rinoa's confused scowl, he chuckled, his fingers still caressing her hair. "Correction, I _shouldn't_ be asking for any explanation." The corner of his mouth upturned into the smallest touch of a smile. "You're not mine."

_I could be,_ Rinoa thought, her teeth immediately chomping down on her lower lip to keep her inward thoughts from becoming vocalized. All she could do was stare wide-eyed and practically chew her own lip while Squall gave her a one-fingered salute and made his way towards the staircase.

A flush that started from her belly crept upwards to the top of her head. Beneath her ribcage she felt her heart skip a beat and then begin to thunder madly. She wasn't quite sure how to take that conversation that just happened. Was he jealous? Was he attempting to be casual and aloof since she wasn't "his?" Rinoa wasn't even entirely sure how she felt about _him _yet, perhaps he was going through the same thing? Rinoa raised her camera back to eye-level and began to focus on a random kid with yellow and orange dreadlocks who looked to be no older than fifteen.

_That has to be it,_ Rinoa mused to herself. _After all, we've only just met, we're still figuring each other out. _She pressed her lips together as she thought back to the last time they had kissed. It had been a few days since then and he hadn't made any advances towards her since. Sure, there was constant flirting and nudging…but nothing went past that.

She was so busy snapping away that she hadn't noticed Seifer's video camera had been aimed right at her.

* * *

"How's it going Strange Vision!" Irvine yelled into the mic. The crowd responded with a thunderous howl and stomping feet. Irvine chuckled, the sound gritty and seductive as he gazed over the sea of faces. "In case you weren't aware…we are Absolute Lore and we want to thank you for coming out!"

The crowd roared, screaming and clapping their hands with fervor. "We love you!" a few cried out.

Irvine chuckled and tapped his fingers along the length of the mic stand. "And we love you," he said throatily. "So…so very much." His eyes sought out Selphie and he found her at the front of the stage and a little off to the side so she wasn't in front of Quistis' amp. "Especially you," he said, pointing right at her.

Some of the crowd oohed and ahhed while some let out suggestive whistles. Selphie's nose crinkled as she laughed and her fingers rose to her lips. Rinoa zoomed in on the sweet moment and captured it.

Zell's guitar broke in, the quick and electric strums instantly snagging Rinoa's attention. She rose up her camera and snapped the concentration etched into his face as he counted the beats that he strummed.

Following the beat, Quistis rose her arms in the air and clapped her hands, encouraging the audience to follow suit. Fluidly the crowd rose their hands and clapping in time with the strumming. Rinoa snapped away, in complete awe at how the sounds coming from Zell's guitar easily placed the crowd into a hypnotic state.

With only Zell's strums and Quistis' clapping, Irvine joined in with his words. "_Hold on for a second/If words can be weapons/Then what I say can effect it/They're not just words on a record._" His words weren't sung, he merely spoke them, but he spoke them in a fluid and smooth rhythm, his body swaying a bit as he spoke into his mic. "_And I can choose to respect it/Or choose to infect it/But once that hits the water/It's too late to be selective._"

Squall followed in, one foot taking over the beat of the clapping with the powerful kick of the bass drum while his other foot brought in a softer, jingling beat with the hi-hat. Rinoa zoomed in on his face and watched as he nodded his head in time, his stormy eyes scanning over the surface of his cymbals. He made it look so easy. He kept his hands in his lap, his gloved fingers firmly grasping the drumsticks, as he counted.

"_If one voice is enough/To make sleeping giants wake up/To make armies put their hands up/And watch whole nations stand up/It's one belief, one spark/One faith and one restart/And we can reboot the whole chart/Before it all falls apart._" Irvine smiled and stepped back from the mic for a brief second, moving his guitar so it was strapped across the front of his body. He took over the strumming beat Zell had been playing so Zell deepen his chords to something grittier, heavier. "_So stand up shout it out/We can put 'em up in the air if you like it loud/We only got one shot so let's make it count/It's a takedown nobody can stop us now/Stand up shout it out/Sing it loud, so the world can't drown us out/And before we depart let's leave a mark/'Cuz light shines brighter in the dark…_"

Squall broke out of his seemingly non-moving trance and transformed before Rinoa's eyes. His arms speared from his body, crashing the drumsticks across the cymbals and skins. The look of pure concentration remained, but Rinoa could see the slight upturn of his mouth at the pleasure he received from the thundering music he made.

Irvine gripped the mic and belted, "_When we scream/Our lips don't make a sound/We march with feet on solid ground/We walk where no one wants to go/On this untraveled road._"

Rinoa moved through the crowd so she could work a different angle. She aimed her camera at Quistis and snagged a shot of her arching forward towards the crowd, her tongue running over those perfect teeth of hers as she plucked the strings of her bass to the original beat. "Clap your hands!" she demanded of the crowd.

Obediently they obliged her wishes, their hands raising up as if to reach the sky. Rinoa caught several images of the crowd going wild—and this was only the first song of the set! "Amazing," she murmured, clicking away with her camera trained on Selphie dancing and swinging her hips.

"_So hold on for a moment/If we're not scared of opponents/Then with what we have we can own it/We just plant the seed and keep growin'/And when that light shines in the mornin'/They'll still be waking up yawnin'/We'll be smiling like we expected/Sweet victory and one method._"

Squall crashed back in with another reprise of the infectious chorus, his strong arms flailing while he had his head bent and bobbing to the rhythm.

Rinoa stepped closer through the crowd so that she could get some great close-ups of Irvine crooning into the mic. Irvine noticed her and immediately dropped down in front of her, practically schmoozing for the camera. "_When we scream/Our lips don't make a sound/We march with feet on solid ground/We walk where no one wants to go/On this untraveled road…_" He sent the camera a charming wink before standing back up to feet and continuing with the song.

Rinoa threw back her head and laughed as she watched Irvine work the camera. It made her wonder once again if he had prior experience with modeling. She moved her camera over to where Zell and Quistis stood with their backs against each other, their chords and strums bouncing from each other like vibrating rifts of energy.

As they continued on with their set, Rinoa could feel her heart thunder within her breast. Selphie approached her and threw her arms around Rinoa's neck. "Didn't I tell you?" she shouted over the music. "They are _fabulous_ live!" Before Rinoa could vocalize her agreement, Selphie grabbed her hand and started to lead her through the crowd. "Come on, let's go upstairs!"

_I hadn't even gotten any shots from that angle yet,_ Rinoa thought. "Alright!" she cried. Giddily she followed Selphie up the stairs and the two came across a reserved table where an older couple was seated. "Cid! Edea!"

The two smiled at the girls and motioned for them to sit down. "How are you?" Cid asked, giving them a great hug. "So, how are you liking our kiddos live?"

Rinoa's jaw dropped and she simply just held out her hands in awe. "_Awesome,_" she responded. "They are way too good—it's hardly even possible!"

"They work really hard," Edea said with a proud smile. "They really do! So talented, and so determined!"

Rinoa broke away from them so she could stand at the balcony's edge. As she zoomed in through her lenses she could see the sweat that bordered Squall's brow, could see the rippling of his muscles as his arms thrashed over his kit. Rinoa's tongue poked out and wet her lips. When she was younger, the only drummer she knew of was Animal from _The Muppet Show,_ and of course his movements were exaggerated and hilarious despite the perfect beats he made. But watching Squall…she could see that drumming was more than just making _noise._ Squall's movements were fluid despite looking like heavy flaying, they were methodical, precise, and…

A wave of heat washed over her, and it wasn't from the heat radiating from the many bodies crammed into the club. No…she knew what it was from. She was getting turned on simply from Squall beating the skins of his drums. His arm reached up, the tip of his drumstick rhythmically tapping the edge of one cymbal while his other hand perfectly twirled the stick between his fingers. _So…he could keep a very steady rhythm with his fingers,_ Rinoa thought. Her jaw dropped at her thoughts and she busied herself with taking some shots of Zell spinning around on stage. _Woah there girlfriend,_ she thought to herself.

"Aren't they great?" Selphie asked, leaning over the edge of the wooden balcony.

Rinoa turned the camera towards the brunette and snapped a few shots of her staring wistfully at the band on stage. "Absolute Lore's biggest fan!" she laughed. "Or perhaps _Irvine's_ biggest fan?"

Selphie giggled and playfully gave Rinoa the finger. "Can you _blame_ me?"

* * *

Afterwards they all met in the parking lot to reload the cars. Selphie was helping Rinoa put her camera away in Selphie's Beetle. "So, we're all heading over to Zell's house after this," she was saying. "You want to get something to eat real quick before we head over there? It could be a little while before they get there." She gestured towards Nida and the others packing up Squall's disassembled kit.

Rinoa nodded. "Absolutely!"

Suddenly Irvine raced up and wrapped his arms around Selphie's waist, hoisting her up and spinning her around as she squealed.

_Goddammit,_ Rinoa thought, reaching for her camera again. _Always with the cute stuff when I put my camera down!_ "Don't stop doing that!" she demanded, hoisting up her camera and taking as many shots as she could before he set Selphie back down onto the ground. "Ugh, you guys are so fucking adorable I think I'm just going to puke."

"Join the club," Squall muttered as he lit his cigarette. He looked over to Rinoa and nodded at her. "You two heading to Zell's?"

"Yeah, we're gonna get some food first and then head over," she answered, resisting the urge to brush at the strand of hair that was glued to his forehead with sweat. His cheeks were flushed from his aggressive movements, his breathing hadn't yet calmed down, and for a moment she could swear she could hear the adrenaline-filled racing of his heart.

As if hearing her thoughts, he ran his hand through his hair, shaking it loose. He then looked over to Zell who was pulling his t-shirt up over his head, exposing his bare and inked chest.

Rinoa pushed Squall forward. "Come on!" she urged, her fingers also wrapping around Irvine's bicep to tug him along. "Let's get a few shots of you guys in front of the venue!"

Seifer followed them with his camera, catching some of the fans wailing and screaming in excitement as the band members walked in front of Strange Vision's front entrance. "Did you guys enjoy the show?" he asked, gesturing with his hand for them to really vocalize their enthusiasm.

Rinoa chuckled and snapped away as the band met with their fans. A few young girls swooned with Zell jumped at them with his naked chest out in the open. Rinoa even caught a snapshot of a teenage boy blushing when Quistis leaned in close for a picture with him.

"Thank you everyone for coming out!" Irvine shouted, posing for a few photos. "We do this for you!"

"Yes!" Quistis cried out, suddenly leaning in and planting a kiss onto the teenage boy's cheek. "We are here because of _you_ guys! So, thank you, thank you!" She sent the awestruck boy and wink and walked away with her arm waving in the air.

"We love you!" Zell screamed as they started heading back towards the car.

As Squall passed by a young woman probably no older than nineteen struggling with her lighter as her cigarette dangled from her lips, he paused and flicked his lighter, lighting it for her. Her eyes widened at the sudden flame, and when she saw who was lighting her cigarette, she paused before leaning into suck at the fire. "Thanks," she said quietly.

Rinoa got a few shots of the moment and held in a chuckle when Squall simply nodded and continued walking away, completely missing the face of _"Ohmygod did you just fucking see that?"_ that the girl sent to her friends.

Back at the car, Rinoa strapped herself in after gently tucking away her camera into its bag. A soft knocking came at her window and she rolled it down to see Seifer smiling at her. "You two going to Zell's right?" he asked.

Rinoa politely smiled. "Yes," she answered.

Seifer's smile grew wider. "Great," he said, tapping his fingers along the edge of the car window. "Great, I'll see you there." He stepped away and turned towards the Hummer.

"Yep," Rinoa said under her breath and turned to see Selphie staring at her with those large green eyes. "Yes, my love?" she said sweetly, batting her eyes with the most innocent looking face she could muster.

Selphie started the car and pointed a nail at Rinoa as the car moved forward. "Explanation. You can tell me _everything_ over milkshakes and fries."

* * *

_**"Untraveled Road" music and lyrics by Thousand Foot Krutch**_


	11. Chapter 11

**A/N: This update is up so soon because I actually had most of it written before some of the previous chapters. I tend to write out of chronological order! Anyways, I hope you enjoy...**

* * *

"Come on, spill!" Selphie said as she slurped on her milkshake. "Did something happen between you and Seifer while I was upstairs? What'd I miss? Tell me!"

As much as Rinoa would have loved to continue torturing Selphie, she knew she couldn't hold it in much longer. She released a bubbling laugh and nearly dropped her fries into the sloppy puddle of ketchup. "No, Selphie," she managed to squeak out through laughs. "Nothing happened while you were upstairs."

"Then why is the videographer so interested in whether or not you'll be at the party?"

Rinoa shook her head and sighed. "Seifer and I used to date—if you can even call it that," she said finally.

"Oh." Selphie blinked for a moment as she registered that information. "Is…is that the guy you were telling me about?"

"That's right, you weren't there when the band was talking about partnering with Hyperion Images for the music video…" Rinoa sipped at her milkshake. "I met Seifer when I worked a job in Esthar. We "dated" for a few months."

"What happened?"

Rinoa shrugged and dragged a french fry though the ketchup. "_Nothing_ happened. I lived in Timber, he lived in Esthar…we met up when we could, we'd fuck the whole weekend, go out to dinner or a movie, and then back to Timber I'd go or back to Esthar he'd go. There really wasn't much to it."

"And now you're _both_ back in Deling," Selphie mused. Her brows arched. "Do you think you two will try to rekindle the old flame?" When Selphie saw the look of apprehension on Rinoa's face, she frowned. "Or…do you even want to?"

Softly, Rinoa laughed and shook her head. "I don't know what I truly want," she answered. A small, nagging itch clawed at the back of her mind. _Don't lie, you know what you __**want.**_ "I mean, I _know_ what I want," she said with suggestive grin. "But my priority and my main focus is my career, and that's what it's going to be for a very long time now."

Selphie let out a giggle and playfully kicked at Rinoa from beneath the table. "Well, good for you," she said. "You should live your life how you want to and focus on what _you_ think is important. After all, it's your life and it's the only one you're going to get."

"Exactly," Rinoa said as she grabbed more fries. "Tomorrow is never a guarantee." She greedily chugged at her milkshake. "I mean, I really did like Seifer but even back then I don't think either of us were looking for a serious relationship."

"Hey, if it's not in the cards then it's not in the cards!" Selphie popped the last of her fries into her mouth and dusted the crumbs from her hands. "Man, that hit the spot!" she said. "Hey, I'll be right back." She stood to her feet and pointed at the liquor store that was behind the burger shack they were in front of. "I'm gonna grab some beer for the band. Did you want me to grab you anything?"

Rinoa shook her head. "Nah, whatever you grab I'll drink."

"Sweet. Be back in a few minutes!"

Rinoa's phone beeped and she pulled it from her purse.

_S.L: We're stopping by the liquor store in a bit, did you want anything?_

Rinoa softly chuckled to herself. "Man, are you psychic or something?"

_R.H: Selphie actually just popped in a liquor store to grab some beer for you guys =)_

_S.L: Very nice. We'll probably be at Zell's in thirty minutes._

Rinoa lifted her head to see Selphie approaching the table. "All set?" She grabbed one of the bags that Selphie had and followed her to the car. "Ooh, what's in here?" she asked, pulling out a chocolate bar and a bag of chips. "You're still hungry?"

Selphie pushed Rinoa's hands away from her snacks. "Shut up!" she cried. "My period's supposed to start soon. All I want to eat is chocolate and salt."

"I know the feeling," Rinoa laughed, delicately putting Selphie's precious snacks back into their proper bag.

_R.H: We're on our way. See you there =)_

* * *

The girls arrived at Zell's house before the rest of the band. They were greeted by Ma Dincht along with the Kramers, who had left immediately after the set had ended. Ma Dincht offered a warm and hearty smile from her seat at the dining table. She looked to be a woman who would be perfectly happy at home in a large kitchen baking cookies…but who would clearly throw her fists up if the occasion called for it. Edea raised her wine glass to the approaching girls. "Hello ladies!" she said with a bright smile. "Did you enjoy the show?"

"Yes! I believe I got some amazing shots of your kiddos!" Rinoa said, leaning in to give the older woman a hug.

"Oh, good!" Cid exclaimed.

"Hi, Ma!" Selphie sang, throwing her arms around the other woman's neck. She turned to look at Rinoa. "Ma, this is Rinoa. And this is Zell's mom, Ma!" She snuggled up to the older woman and gave a sigh. "She's the band's Ma now…" she smiled as she gave the older woman a possessive squeeze.

Ma chuckled and gave Selphie an affectionate pat on the arm. "Yes…yes," she smiled. "You are all my babies." She stood and gave Rinoa's outstretched hand a shake. "Very nice to meet you, Rinoa, my son's told me all about you and that you are _very_ talented with that camera of yours. He showed me the photos you posted on their web page, I love them!"

"Oh, thank you," Rinoa blushed. "It helps that everyone in the band is so pretty!"

Ma let out a roaring laugh and grabbed two new glasses from the cupboard. "What can I say, my son is the most handsome man I have ever met—aside from my late husband of course!" She poured a very generous amount of red wine into the glasses and set them in front of the girls. "Drink up my dears!"

"Oh…" Rinoa laughed at the glass in front of her. "That is…wow, a uh…_very_ full glass."

"Why, yes it is!" Ma said, giving Rinoa a robust pat on the shoulder. "You should do something about it!" She returned back to her seat and finished her own glass. Her eyes lit up when she saw the front door opening up. With her large and beaming smile she stood back up to her feet, her arms spread wide. "The prodigal son returns!" she hollered.

"Ma!" He wrapped his arms around her waist and lifted her into the air. "You missed a hell of a show, Ma!"

Ma laughed and gave him a smack on the cheek. "I know darling, I know. Now, put me down." Her eyes landed upon Squall and she pulled him down to plant a kiss to his forehead. "Hey there my little lion boy," she cooed. "Did you have a good show?"

"Yes, Ma," he answered.

Rinoa looked over to Selphie. "Little lion boy?" she whispered.

Selphie shrugged.

"My last name is Leonhart," Squall answered, setting a six pack of beer onto the kitchen counter beside Rinoa.

"Ahhh," Rinoa dragged out. "That actually makes sense."

"Not just that," Ma interjected. "When he was kid and over here all the time to play with Zell, little baby Squall always had this little stuffed lion with him." When Zell started to laugh at the memory, Ma snapped her fingers at him. "Squall's little stuffed lion would always play with my baby Zell's plushie dolphin—it was the cutest thing!"

"Ma! You're ruining our image! Stop!"

A knock came at the door and Irvine broke away to let in Seifer and his crew. "We come baring gifts!" cried the blonde, gesturing towards the bottles of champagne and whiskey that his men were holding. "And of course…for the ladies." He handed a small bouquet of red roses to Quistis. "Great show tonight," he told her.

Quistis gathered the bouquet in her arms and gave him a shove on his shoulder. "Oh you," she said with mock flirtation, batting her eyes like wings.

"And for you, Irvine's leading lady," Seifer said with a bow, handing Selphie a single yellow rose.

Selphie crinkled her nose as she tried not to giggle. "Awww…" she cooed. "Thanks!"

Seifer then turned to Rinoa with a large and warm smile. "And of course, for Absolute Lore's brilliant photographer!" He gave another theatric bow and handed her a white rose. "I can't wait to see how the shots came out," he said.

Rinoa gently plucked the rose from his fingers and let out a soft laugh. "Thank you, I'm excited to see this music video!" she told him. "Do you know which song you're going to do yet?"

"Not yet, I think we'll review the footage and figure it out from there." He looked over to the band with excitement. "Hopefully we can also get in a stylized video as well. Maybe in an old warehouse or something? Something gritty and raw…"

"I think we should go back to that orphanage on the beach that Rinoa found," Squall proposed.

Rinoa lit up at the suggestion and nearly squealed. "Really? Oh wow…" Her eyes gazed off in the distance as she tried to visualize a live show amongst the rubble and crashing waves. "That'd be stunning!"

"On the beach, huh…" Irvine mused, his fingers scratching at his chin as he thought about the idea. "Intriguing…" Suddenly his face twisted into an impish grin and he wagged his eyebrows. "Swimwear will be involved I trust?"

Quistis scoffed and placed her bouquet on the kitchen counter. "Swimwear will most _definitely_ be involved!" she shouted.

Irvine rubbed his hands in excitement.

"You boys will be in itty bitty speedos and I'll be fully dressed in jeans and a tank top. Duh." Quistis placed her hands on her cocked hips and shot Irvine a smirk that spoke volumes. Her smirk nearly wavered into a full blown guffaw when she saw the look of horror on Irvine's face.

"What—? Wait, no!" he cried.

Squall shook his head at the mental image. "What'd you expect her to do? Parade around in a bikini?"

"Washing a car as well, I'd suppose!" Zell chimed in.

Irvine crossed his arms over his chest and pouted. "Well, I know _I'd_ look damn good in a speedo. I can't speak for these two ugly ass motherfuckers."

Rinoa nearly fell over laughing as the three band members went on into a large shouting match about speedos and beach wear. She looked over at Seifer who was quite enjoying the amusing sight. "Look what you've started!"

"Me? Leonhart was the one who suggested the beach!"

Squall lifted his head and glared daggers at him. "You are _not_ pinning this on me!"

"Enough!" Quistis shouted, hopping in between the two men. "_No one_ is wearing bikinis or speedos—lord knows I don't want to see any of that shit." She took hold of the bottle of champagne that Biggs was holding out to her. "It's time to fucking celebrate!"

"Hear, hear!" Raijin hollered, following Ma into the kitchen to round up glasses for those who were still empty-handed. "It was a great show, we got some great footage, Rinoa got some great images…" He poured out a few shots of whiskey. "…and I think I overheard that a producer was somewhere in the crowd." His grin spread ear to ear as he mentioned the last part.

Zell graciously took a filled shot glass from his mother. "There's _always_ a producer in the crowd," he said cautiously. "Everyone is someone or knows someone who works in the industry. We always take it with a grain of salt."

Wedge shook his head and excitedly spoke up. "No! I really think he was someone important! You never know…"

Cid chuckled and placed a proud hand on Zell's shoulder. "Well…we'll see," he said. "It was a great show and a lot of people took videos and pictures on their cell phones so something_ could _come out of it. But for now, no more talk of business! Tonight we celebrate a great show and a promising partnership between the band and these wonderful additions to its exposure!" He smiled at Seifer and Rinoa. "I feel really good about this," he nodded. "With Rinoa's stunning photography and Hyperion Image's video expertise…it could really blow Absolute Lore up!"

Rinoa let out an enthusiastic scream and lifted her wine glass into the air. "To Absolute Lore!"

Everyone followed suit and raised their glasses. "To Absolute Lore!" they chanted, feet stomping on the ground and knuckles rapping on the counter and tabletops. After a few more rounds or hoots and hollers, they all lowered their drinks and greedily chugged.

Nida and the rest of the roadies arrived with a few other people who were at the show. "Did we miss a toast?" he sulked, hurrying to grab himself a beer.

"Then we shall have another one!" Irvine demanded, pouring himself another shot.

Rinoa chuckled as everyone made second drinks for themselves. She lifted her gaze and found Squall reach over and grab the bottle of Jameson that Seifer was holding. She watched as the two went back and forth with idle banter, mostly over who the bottle really belonged to.

"I bought it for _everyone_," Seifer was saying.

"I already asked, they all said I could have it," Squall responded, unscrewing the top and swigging it straight from the bottle.

Seifer made a repulsed face. "Fuck it, no one's gonna want it now that you've put your dirty ass mouth all over it." Suddenly he was pulled away by Irvine who was very much interested in talking about the new prospective idea of a stylized video.

* * *

Not too long after was the house filled with people. It wasn't a large and obscene party, but it was big enough where Rinoa had to protectively clutch her glass to her as she maneuvered through the crowd. She smiled as she noticed a few familiar faces from the venue. Some of these faces she had even seen onstage before Absolute Lore had set up. A few of them she made small talk with, other band members who were thinking about hiring her as well. She told them that once she was set up at her new studio in a few weeks, she would be more than happy to set up a photoshoot.

Even though it was loud and people were nearly shouting at each other to be heard over the chatter and music that was playing, Rinoa found that she was surprisingly very comfortable with the environment. It was obvious that the house was filled with those who were familiar and contented with each other. She had even seen Ma give a few people hugs and playfully ruffle a few spiked mohawks. Despite the now ruined hairdo, they laughed and threw their arms around Ma and gave kisses to her cheek. Rinoa even saw that Seifer and his team had made a few new friends with some of the other band members from the gig.

Rinoa could help but smile as she sipped her drink. Everyone was just so damn happy and enjoying themselves. The energy and feelings of warmth and elation was contagious. She tried not to spill her drink when she rounded a couple in a very animated conversation about video games.

Selphie snaked a hand around Rinoa's arm to hold her steady. "What number drink is that?" she asked with a teasing tone.

Rinoa glanced down. She was now holding a beer bottle and she tried to think back to when she had finished her wine. "Um…" she murmured. "I think it's my second beer?"

Selphie laughed and tugged Rinoa out of the living room. "How many shots did you take?" she teased. "You're all wibbly wobbly."

"I didn't have any shots!" Rinoa argued, following Selphie down the hallway. "But that glass of wine…I was almost done and then Ma came and filled it back up! Blame her for my wibbly wobbly-ness. Where are we going?"

"I gotta pee," Selphie answered, pushing open the bathroom door. "Wait outside for me, drunky!" she ordered Rinoa.

"Yeah, yeah…" Rinoa rubbed the back of her neck and let out a soft groan as she felt the tightness of her muscles beneath her flesh. _What a night,_ she thought. As she leaned against the bathroom door she opened her eyes, her vision settling on a familiar and welcome face. She smiled and lifted her bottle to her lips.

Squall rested his elbow against the hallway entrance, his lips curved into a grin and he raised his bottle of Jameson in a toast at her.

She responded by hooking a finger in his direction, beckoning him to come closer. "Come here," she called.

He came up to her, his palm resting against the wall. "Having a nice night?" he asked, taking a quick swig from his bottle. His eyes scanned over the grin she sent to him, studied the soft shape of her pouty lips before dropping lower, blatantly aiming at her breasts.

"It just got better," she purred, tapping his chin lightly with her nail.

Squall leaned in, his lips just hovering over her cheek. "Is that so?"

Rinoa chuckled and curled her fingers into his t-shirt. "Absolutely…" she whispered, suddenly snatching the bottle from his grasp and taking a large sip.

"That's mine."

"Sharing is caring!" She handed the bottle back to him and displayed a sweet and magnificent smile. "Besides, you only have a little bit left…so that means you were greedy and nearly finished the whole damn thing to yourself."

He looked at the lip of the bottle where her mouth had just been. As he looked back at her and the corner of his mouth turned upwards into the slightest smirk. "I can be pretty damn greedy when it comes to what I like."

Before she could respond with any words he took her hand and led her further down the hallway. He downed what was left of his Jameson and placed it onto the floor.

"Come on," he whispered, pushing open a door that led to the garage. He caught sight of Rinoa's sultry grin and his body reacted with a palpable heat that radiated throughout his veins. As soon as the door closed behind them and he flicked on the light, he turned the lock.

* * *

"Where's Squall?" Zell glanced up and scratched his nails over the back of his head as he realized that Squall was no longer behind him. He looked over to Quistis who was shrugging her shoulders.

"Maybe went out for a smoke?" she suggested.

Irvine nodded. "Yeah, I know he was getting antsy earlier," he contributed. "He's been jonesing for a cigarette for a few hours at least, especially since I won't let him smoke in the car." He turned his head and instantly smiled when he saw Selphie approaching him. He held out his arms for her and kissed the top of her head as she flew into his embrace.

"Have you seen Rinoa?" she asked when she lifted her head from his chest. "She was standing outside the bathroom waiting for me but when I came out she was gone."

Irvine looked over Selphie's head at the two blondes in front of him.

Quistis pressed her lips together and turned away to avoid any questioning gaze Selphie may send her way. "Nope," she said.

Zell instantly brought his beer to his lips and enthusiastically shook his head.

* * *

Rinoa grunted as Squall shoved her against the wall. She felt her breath escape her as his lips fervently crashed over hers, his fingers raking over the nape of her neck. This kiss was so different from the last kiss he had placed on her. That short yet so heated session against his kitchen counter was so cautious and gentle, testing the waters, discovering the first boundaries…this one was more demanding, passionate, fiery.

She wanted to tell him that he played a great show, that she could feel the passion and energy radiate from him while he played their set, wanted to tell him that he looked so damn good in his simple uniform of a tight black shirt and black jeans…but words failed her and instead she gripped his body as close to hers as possible and plunged her tongue into his mouth.

He pressed himself against her, his hand cupping the base of her neck so his fingers could tug at her roots. The carnal gesture earned a guttural moan from Rinoa, a rumbling so deep within her throat that it sounded more like an animalistic growl. While his right hand fisted her hair to bring her kisses closer, his other hand possessively clutched the sweet curve of her ass.

She moved her lips down the scratchy surface of his jaw, her teeth nipping over the pulsating vein of his throat. The breathy grunts that came from him egged her on and she moved her hands between them and slid them beneath the hem of his shirt. A slight pout came from her when she realized that she had another layer to get through—his undershirt—and she slipped her hand beneath that offending layer, her nails raking over the creases of his abdomen. Their tight embrace prevented her hands from going up too far, but she was determined to feel this nipple ring Zell had previously spoken about.

Abruptly Squall grabbed her hands and removed them from his shirt. He let out an annoyed breath and rested his forehead against her cheek. "Goddammit," he muttered through his teeth.

Rinoa stilled. Did she anger him? How? "What's wrong?"

"Just remembered I don't have a condom," he growled into her ear, releasing her hands.

Rinoa blinked at the realization and her shoulders relaxed. "Oh…" Her breath came faster and her hands spread up his biceps as she tried to think. "Ok, well then we'll just go get one."

Squall chuckled and grasped her chin between two fingers. "From where?" he asked, nipping her bottom lip. "I'm not about to go ask Zell for one. And I'm drunk, I can't exactly drive to get one either."

"Well then I—"

He silenced her by slipping his tongue into her mouth. "No," he said sternly when he pulled his lips from hers. "You're drunk, you're not driving either."

Rinoa's hands went to Squall's belt and impatiently tugged. She was determined to prove him wrong—she only had a few drinks, she wasn't _that_ drunk. However, her clumsy fumbling with the buckle was only proving him right. "But…I want—"

"I know what you want," he whispered in a low and guttural moan. He pushed himself against her, his lips descending upon hers and his tongue plunging deep into her mouth. The tiny hairs along the back of his neck stood on end, his eyes screwed tight as her strangled moan filled his throat. Fuck, she tasted so good, he couldn't stop. The fire that emanated from her skin as a result to his touch was addicting. His palm slid over the flat plane of her belly and dipped beneath the band of her jeans. He paused for a moment, silently asking her if what he was doing was ok. The passionate kisses eased into a deep, slow, sensual suckle as he waited for her answer.

Rinoa nodded.

He smiled, his tongue flickering against hers while his fingers undid the snap of her jeans. His fingers caressed the junction between her thighs, a groan vibrating through him when he felt how wet she was. _Holy shit,_ he thought. He wanted to take her so badly, wanted to pick her up and toss her onto the hood of the car behind them and drive himself right into her…but he knew that even if he did have a condom he couldn't be considered exactly up to par. Though he could feel that while his jeans were indeed feeling tighter, he was well aware of the fact that he was experiencing the curse of whiskey dick. He was not as hard as he should have been, not when he had this writhing and moaning goddess before him. It would be an insult to her as a person if he were to reveal that he was only at half-mast. _I shouldn't have finished that bottle…_ he mentally kicked himself. _Wow, does that sound familiar…_

He just wanted to touch her, to taste her, to feel and watch her moan and squirm from his touch. Slowly he traced his fingertip over her slick opening. His lip rose into a smirk when Rinoa released a choked squeak of a moan. When she tried to reach for his belt he hastily pulled away from her.

Rinoa's eyes shot open, a worried expression crossing over her face for a split moment as she briefly wondered if she offended him. Squall then returned his body to align with hers, only this time he roughly grasped her wrists within his left hand and pinned them high above her head. "But…" she protested. "I want to touch you." She strained against him, her fingers dancing in the air as she tried to lower her arms.

"Another time," he whispered. "Right now I'm getting what _I _want."

Rinoa moaned and shifted beneath his grip as his right hand sank back beneath her panties. "And what's that?" she asked breathlessly.

"To watch you come," came his rasping reply. He slid a finger inside her, slowly pulsing in and out. When his fingers were slick and drenched, he moved it upwards to the little bundle of nerves that impatiently awaited him. "You are so wet," he growled, softly grazing his fingertips over her. "Is it all for me?"

She nodded, her teeth biting down onto her lower lip as she rolled her hips, trying to catch the friction. "Yes," she gasped. She leaned her head against the wall, arched her back so that her pelvis tilted upwards towards Squall's throbbing touch.

He was rather enjoying watching her come undone. He wanted to go slower, torture her, watch her writhe…but then that would be torture for him as well, wouldn't it? His fingers stroked skillfully while his tongue danced over her swelling mouth.

Rinoa twisted against him, rolling her hips closer to his undulating caress. "Fuck!" she gasped, her body convulsing as her orgasm rippled through her. It spread across her body, her breasts heaving from her shaken breaths, her legs nearly folding at the rush.

Squall released her wrists and moved his arm around her waist to keep her supported against him. Even though she groaned in protest, he kept his fingers beneath her panties moving and thrusting. He captured her lips and kissed her senseless, relishing the fact that she could hardly stand.

"Ah…stop, _stop,_" she begged, her hands slithering between their hot bodies to clutch his wrist.

He stopped and immediately pulled his hand out of her pants. "You ok?"

Rinoa chuckled breathlessly. "Yes," she nodded. Panting, she grasped his jaw between her hands and brought his lips down to meet hers. Her thundering heart was slowly coming back down to its regular beat, her gasping breaths started to slow. She let out a soft moan and leaned back against the wall and ran a hand through her hair. _Wow…_she thought. She opened her eyes and smiled at him, her eyes suddenly widening when she saw that he was staring at the fingers that he had worked her with. They were still glossy and wet and he held them up to his lips.

Squall locked eyes with her and then licked his fingers clean.

A hot shudder rocked through Rinoa as she watched his tongue graze over his wet fingers. _Oh my god,_ she thought. He brought his fingers to Rinoa's lips and she instantly took them into her mouth, swallowing it to the hilt.

"Fuck," Squall growled, removing his hand from her mouth and replacing it with his tongue. "You taste so good," he breathed against her lips. "And you are talented with that tongue of yours."

Rinoa grinned, her fingers once again reaching for his belt. "Can I show you how talented?"

He shook his head. "Not tonight. I can't."

"But…" Then Rinoa thought back to how much Squall had had to drink in the last few hours. "Oh."

"Next time," he promised.

"Next time." A soft and airy laugh escaped her at the familiar words.

His arms laced around her and pulled her into a heavy embrace, the ferocity of his kisses slowing to long and slow luxurious suckles along her jaw. She smiled and her hands found their way into his hair, gently tugging at the roots.

"I promise there won't be any alcohol involved," he murmured against her neck. "So that way you won't pass out and I'll be able to perform." He cursed himself for getting too caught up in partying…he was just having such a good time being surrounded by friends after an adrenaline-pumped show that he hadn't even realized he finished the whole bottle by himself.

"Sounds good," Rinoa purred, leaning in to run the tip of her tongue over the glossy black plug in his earlobe. "My place or yours?"

He moved his head and slanted his lips over hers. "Mine," he said against her mouth. "Then yours. Then mine again." A ringing came from Squall's back pocket and he snarled at the interruption. Reluctantly he retracted himself from Rinoa. When he pulled up the contraption he frowned at the sight of Irvine's name. "Yes?" he answered.

"Where are you?"

"What are you, my fucking mother?"

Irvine snickered. "Your ugly ass could _never_ be born from my good looks," he shot. "Have you seen Rinoa? Selphie's looking for her."

Squall turned and looked at the door on the other side of the garage that led to the backyard. "We're outside," he answered, hanging up and sliding the phone back into his pocket. "Cigarette?" he asked her.

"Sure." She lowered her hands and buttoned up her jeans.

He reached behind her and unlocked the main door that led back into the hallway. "This way." He took hold of her arm and led her through the side door of the garage. There were a few people in the backyard but they were so engrossed in their own conversations that they didn't notice the two emerge. Squall handed Rinoa a cigarette and flicked the lighter for her.

She watched as he lit his own cigarette and led her to the edge of the pool. With the cigarette dangling from the corner of her mouth, she unlaced her boots and pulled off her socks. She rolled her jeans up around her knees and dipped her legs into the pool. The cool water sent shivers up her spine and she leaned back so her palm lay flat against the concrete. "Oh wow," she whispered. "That feels _good._" She looked up to see Squall intently watch her. "Put your feet in!" she ordered, exhaling smoke through her lips.

Squall mimicked her actions and soon his legs from the calf down were submersed in the pool. "Yeah," he agreed. "That feels nice."

As Rinoa looked down into the water she noticed something on Squall's calf. It was distorted due to the ripples of the water, but she noticed that it was some kind of tattoo. "What's that?" she asked, pointing at his left leg.

Squall lowered his cigarette and glanced to where Rinoa was pointing. He lifted his leg from the water. "It was the first tattoo I got," he said. "Zell actually drew it out for me."

Rinoa looked at the horned creature that adorned the side of Squall's calf. It looked to be some sort of demon with its long and angular horns, ferocious snarl, furred body, and blackened claws. "It looks great," she said. "I like it."

"Thanks." He lowered his leg back into the water. "If you like that then you'll like the rest of them." When he saw Rinoa's jaw drop slightly he gave her slow and smoldering smirk.

"How many do you have?" Rinoa pondered, her voice lowering as she took note of the stirring pull that still kindled between them. What had started in the garage was clearly not over. Her eyes still touched upon those soft lips of his and she felt her heart beat faster when her gaze skimmed over his skilled and rhythmic fingers.

Squall's smirk continued to smolder and ignite the fire within her. "You'll find out."


	12. Chapter 12

**A/N: Holy shit this has hit over 2000 views! I'm happy to hear you all liked the last chapter ;) Again, thank you for all the new reviews/favorites/alerts. xoxoxox**

* * *

"There you are!"

Rinoa glanced up and saw Selphie racing up to her with Irvine not too far behind. "Here I be!" she responded.

"I told you to wait outside the bathroom for me!" Selphie scolded. "I was worried about your drunk ass, you bitch!"

Rinoa's eyes widened as she remembered that she was waiting outside of the bathroom before Squall came and whisked her away. "Oh, shit…sorry! I'm so sorry." She gave Selphie a guilty smile. "Do you still love me?"

Selphie scrunched her nose into a very disapproving look. "I suppose," she sighed. She turned towards Squall and smacked his bicep. "You!" she shouted, pointing her finger straight into his face.

"What?" he returned, lighting himself a cigarette.

"Do me a favor and keep a lookout for her! She has a tendency to wander off when she's drunk."

Rinoa scoffed and rolled her eyes. "Oh for crying out loud…I did that _one_ time!"

Selphie ignored her and continued talking to Squall, bending over so that she was in between them. "A bunch of us went to the boulevard for one of our classmate's birthday, and _this bitch_ got drunk and decided that she wanted to go shopping in the middle of the night when _nothing_ was open! It took me like two hours to find her and when I _did_ find her she was singing karaoke with one of the street vendors."

Squall grinned at the story and glanced behind Selphie to see Rinoa opening and closing her hand to mimic the brunette. "Sounds like a blast," he said.

"I'll have you know that Antonio _loved_ my rendition of Queen's _Fat Bottomed Girls,_" Rinoa snapped, kicking her feet beneath the water. "He was in complete awe with my performance and couldn't look away."

"Only because he was staring at your tits the whole time," Selphie countered with a sly grin.

Rinoa stuck her tongue out at her. "Whatever," she muttered.

"I didn't know you sang?" Irvine asked from behind her.

Rinoa laughed. "Oh…I don't," she said. "But that night I so thought I could!" She turned around to face him and immediately balked when she saw that he was removing his clothes. "What are you doing?" she asked in horror.

"A dip sounds great!" he said, tugging the shirt over his head and then immediately shucking his jeans so that he stood clad in only a pair of dark green boxers. "Heads up!" That was the only warning he gave before jumping into the pool and sending a wave towards the three at the edge.

"Shit!" Selphie cried, scrambling backwards to get away from the splash.

Already accepting their fate, Squall and Rinoa remained. With a sigh Squall moved his cigarettes behind his back to offer them some protection. Rinoa only covered her face. As the water splashed over them, Rinoa made a noise of fright at the coldness of it. "Fucking shit Irvine!" she yelled.

"Pool party!" came an excited yell behind them.

Squall glanced over his shoulder and his eyes widened at the sight of Zell running across the yard, his hands clumsily fumbling for his belt. "Shit," he muttered, retracting his legs from the pool. His cigarettes forgotten, he leaned in and scooped an arm beneath Rinoa's legs while the other circled around her waist, pulling them both away from the splash zone as Zell and a few other people had now plummeted into the water.

He set her down onto the grass and watched as the pool was suddenly filled with semi-clothed drunken fools. His lips formed a scowl as he looked over at the now drenched cigarette packet. _Oh well… _he thought, looking to his left and seeing Rinoa brush at her soaked jeans and cropped top.

She sighed and looked up at Squall, her lower lip protruding into an adorable pout. Her hair clung to her cheeks and beads of water trickled deliciously over her collarbones. "I'm wet," she said sadly, her hands running over her hair to wring out any water.

"Still?" Squall shot her a look that sent a powerful, thunderous wave across her flesh. He caught sight of her widening eyes and grinned.

Rinoa elbowed him in the ribs and made a face at him. "You be quiet," she muttered.

* * *

Rinoa opened her eyes and was welcomed with the sun's light piercing straight through the blinds of the living room. She scrunched her nose at the annoying light and turned over onto her side.

Instantly she was greeted with an arm slinging over her body and pulling her in tight through the waist. The long fingers clenched tightly into Rinoa's top, frisking the fabric before pinching the zipper at the top hem. Rinoa turned her head when the zipper started to get tugged downwards.

"Quistis! Knock it off!" she yelled, slapping away the hand that still fumbled for her zipper.

"What? Huh?" Quistis withdrew her hand and rubbed at her eyes, smearing what was left of her intricate eyeliner. "What's wrong?" she asked sitting up. "What happened?"

Rinoa gave Quistis a light flick to the forehead as she rolled onto her back. "You were trying to undress me in your sleep!" she said, pointing an accusatory finger her way.

At the sudden outburst a few heads rose. Squall pushed himself up onto his arms and rubbed his eyes. "What the hell?" he muttered, turning his head to see the two women on the couch. Instantly an eyebrow rose when he witnessed Quistis practically flop herself on top of Rinoa.

"I can't help it!" cried the blonde, burying her face into Rinoa's hair. "I'm in love with you, Rinoa!"

Rinoa threw back her head and squealed with laughter. "And I love you too but get off of me!"

Quistis snickered and sat up, her thighs still straddling Rinoa's hips. Despite the intimate position she opened her mouth into a wide yawn and prettily patted her fingers over her lips. "In a minute," she murmured. "I'm not awake yet."

Rinoa laughed and shook her head, staring with admiration and envy at Quistis's ability to look so stunning despite the raggedly smeared mascara around her eyes and a smudge of red lipstick around her mouth. Rinoa didn't even want to know what _she_ looked like at that instant.

Suddenly arms wrapped around Quistis's middle and easily lifted her off of Rinoa, leaving both of the women breathless at the abrupt action. Rinoa raised herself onto her elbows and stared in awe at Zell, who now had Quistis primitively slung over his shoulder like some Neanderthal. She had seen him carry Quistis with such ease before at the beach, but it was still an odd sight to see since they were the same height.

"Ok, ok!" Quistis cried. "I'll be good, I promise—now put me down!"

Zell plopped her onto the kitchen counter and moved towards the coffee station that was nestled in the corner of the kitchen. "How did you sleep, Rinoa? You know, before little Miss Grabby over here molested you?" He kept his movements calm and undisturbed, even when the dish towel Quistis threw at him smacked against his head.

With a throaty laugh Rinoa sat up and massaged the back of her neck. "I slept pretty well, actually," she said.

Quistis groaned and held her forehead in her hands. "Ow…too much noise," she grumbled.

"Looks like the hangover part is kicking in," commented Squall, standing to his feet. He joined Zell in the kitchen and brought Quistis a steaming mug. "Drink up," he ordered.

"You're not the boss of me," she snapped. She took a quick sip and turned to face Rinoa. "Did I make you uncomfortable? I'm sorry, I really wasn't trying to undress you."

Rinoa shook her head and made her way into the kitchen. "Of course not," she said, wrapping her arms around Quistis's shoulders. "For a split moment I forgot we decided to share the couch and was wondering whose arm was on me."

Quistis gently laughed so as not to move her head too much. "And here I thought you'd be safer sharing a couch with me than one of the boys."

"I guess I'm just so irresistible," Rinoa said with a wink. She gave Zell a smile when he handed her a full mug. "Speaking of sleeping out here…Zell, why weren't you in your room?"

Zell made a face and looked over to Squall. "Because apparently it got commandeered last night," he muttered solemnly.

Rinoa frowned. "By who?" She was incredulous, how could Zell be kicked out of his own room? "It's _your_ house!"

"Yeah…Selphie can be a bit…persuasive," Zell sighed.

"Selphie…?" Rinoa's eyes widened. "They took over your room? They have their own place!"

"Well…they don't live together yet, actually," Zell corrected. "Plus both of them were pretty drunk after the whole pool fiasco, so I didn't expect them to drive anywhere. Plus I guess the bathroom was occupied."

Rinoa frowned. "Bathroom?" What, were they all teenagers again? Trying to sneak around certain areas of the house to have some 'alone time' with their partners? They were grown ass adults with their own places… Rinoa suddenly pressed her lips together as she realized she was also criticizing her _own_ actions from the previous night. _Do as I say, not as I do…_ she thought.

"It happens," Squall said with a shrug. "Although I think the bathroom was occupied because someone was puking, not fucking."

"Who?" Rinoa asked. She must have passed out by that time.

Zell scratched his head as he thought back. "I think it was one of Seifer's crew…don't remember which one. I mean, I don't mind people getting it on in the house—people got to get their rocks off somewhere—just as long as they don't break anything or are loud or disturb my Ma."

"Can I just say that I _adore_ your Ma?" Rinoa said, pouring the cream and sugar into her mug. "She is amazing."

Zell smiled proudly and the tops of his ears reddened a bit at the compliment. "Yeah…she really has that effect on people."

Squall handed Quistis some aspirin and dutifully watched her swallow the pills. "Yep."

Rinoa looked over to Squall. "You two are pretty close huh?" she asked.

"Zell and I have known each other the longest. And, like you heard last night, I was here a lot growing up."

"And Zell was at your house a lot as well, I'd assume!" Rinoa said with a grin. After a silence that only lasted a fraction of a second, she caught the looks exchanged between the two men. _Or not…_ she thought, her skin crawling with apprehension. _Dammit, what'd I say now?_

Squall simply shook his head. "Nah, I didn't have much of a home for Zell to come to, so I was here a lot."

"…but I thought you said you lived with your older sister?" She winced, she didn't know much about Squall's personal family history—it was something they hadn't really talked about. With each passing second she was realizing that she really didn't know him at all…she had only learned his last name the night before! And here Squall knew about her alcoholic father, a secret she never told anyone (other than Selphie). Rinoa hadn't even mentioned it to her previous lovers. The dawning thought made her determined to find out more about him. She wanted to know more about him—maybe not _everything_ just yet—but she wanted to know what went on in his life, what made him so passionate about drumming, his relationship with his sister…she wanted to know about _Squall._

Squall's eyes lowered to Rinoa's fingers as he watched her stir the spoon inside her coffee. "My sister didn't get full custody of me until I was about twelve," he told her. "Before that I was moved from foster home to foster home."

Rinoa made a little pained whine within her throat, her eyes growing large as she imagined a young Squall constantly having to move from family to family, all the while holding onto his precious little stuffed lion.

"Yeah, luckily most of the foster homes were in the same county," Zell said. "So, even though we may not have been in the same school, he was able to come over a lot. Ma kinda made a point to make sure she knew where he was so that he had someone constant in his life." Zell brought the coffee pot over and topped off Quistis's mug. "Most of the families were cool," he went on. "That last one though…man that shit was _fucked _up—" He was suddenly stopped when Squall kicked him behind the counter.

Zell let out a short cry and was about to send a menacing look Squall's way, but when he saw the glare in Squall's eyes, all thought process ceased. With a quick nod, Zell shut his mouth and turned away to return the coffee pot to its station.

Rinoa glanced back and forth between Zell and Squall. Some boundary had clearly been overstepped or was dangerously close to being overstepped.

It was Quistis who broke the awkward silence that began to hover between them. "Zellll…" she groaned. "You have to take me home."

"And me?" Rinoa asked meekly. "Selphie drove me here and…if she's a little indisposed I'd rather not wait around."

Squall softly growled, pinching the bridge of his nose as he frowned. "Me too. Same situation with Irvine."

Zell nodded and disappeared into the living room to grab his car keys. "I'm ready whenever you are."

"Can we get pancakes?" Quistis begged.

Rinoa laughed and then grabbed a paper towel, dabbing it lightly under the kitchen sink. "You might want to clean up your face first," she said softly, holding Quistis's chin in one hand while trying to clean off the smeared makeup.

* * *

As the four of them sat down for the pancakes Quistis so politely demanded, Squall chugged down another cup of black coffee. Across from him sat Rinoa, who was busying herself with braiding Quistis's long hair.

"I've been thinking about dying it," Quistis was saying as she stirred her coffee. "Maybe adding some pink streaks to it or something."

"That'd be pretty," Rinoa said. "It'd be way easier for you since it'd just be depositing color. It's more of a pain with naturally dark hair because you'd have to bleach it to a certain shade of blonde and _then_ add the color."

Zell leaned back in his chair and rubbed his eyes. "Man, what a night huh?" he said to Squall. "Nothing beats playing a show with a crowd like that."

Quistis nodded. "It's so great when the crowd gets really pumped!"

Rinoa giggled, methodically weaving strands of Quistis's hair. "I noticed! It's like you guys feed off of the crowd's energy and they feed off of yours…it's like this giant, pulsating wave of energy bouncing throughout the entire venue."

"Nothing quite like it," Squall added. "It's the best feeling."

Zell let out a deep laugh and slapped his thigh. "It's orgasmic!" he guffawed.

Rinoa looked up from her working fingers with a tiny grin. "Is that so? Better than sex, huh?" she asked, her eyes drifting over to Squall for the briefest moment before lowering back to Quistis's hair.

Squall ran his tongue over his teeth before opening his mouth. "Depends on the girl," he said thickly, his lips curving into a smirk when he noticed the faint blush that crept upon Rinoa's cheeks.

His mind wandered back to when he had her against the wall inside the garage. He tried not to think about it too much, since now that the alcohol was out of his system his dick would take it as a hint that it was time to play, but he couldn't help but think back to her breathy gasps and the way her hips rolled against him as his fingers maneuvered beneath her panties.

Last night he only had a small taste of her—he wanted more, much more.

Suddenly he was brought back to the present when the waitress set down his ordered plate of a cheese omelette filled with sausage and peppers. "Thanks," he said when the waitress topped off his mug.

"Man, you are drinking _way_ too much coffee," Zell commented as he started to dig into his large stack of buttermilk pancakes. "Your fingers are starting to shake."

Rinoa laughed and poured the syrup over her French toast. "I think he's trying to get all the alcohol out of his system from last night."

"Yeah, I found your damn bottle of Jameson—you finished that whole thing?" Zell shook his head in mock exasperation. "And why the hell did you leave it in front of the garage? You know you're supposed to put all the empty bottles in the kitchen."

Squall shrugged and cut into his omelette. "Got distracted," was all he said. When he saw that Quistis and Zell were busy engorging themselves with their own orders of pancakes, he looked up at Rinoa and gently nudged her foot with his boot. _Now you're getting me in trouble,_ he thought to her.

She scrunched her nose at him and returned a soft kick.

* * *

As they piled back into Zell's truck, Rinoa joined Squall in the back of the cab. She fumbled for her purse and looked through her camera as Zell started driving. When Squall leaned over to look at the screen, she nudged him away with her shoulder. "You can't see them yet!" she said.

"Why?"

"Because _I _haven't even looked at them yet," she answered.

"So?"

Rinoa shut off her camera and placed it back into her bag. "Battery's getting low anyway," she said, sticking her tongue out at him.

"Whatever." Squall leaned back against the headrest. He was about to close his eyes when his phone started going off. His brows lowered a bit when he saw Cid's name flash across the screen. "Yes, Mr. Manager?" he answered.

"I tried getting hold of Irvine but he's not answering, are you all awake?" Cid asked.

"Irvine's busy with Selphie. The rest of us just finished breakfast and we're dropping off Rinoa." He frowned at the hurriedness that was laced within Cid's voice. "Is everything alright?"

Cid chuckled. "It's better than alright. Last night there apparently really _was_ a producer at the show. He works for Siren Records and is already working with a band that you have played with in the past."

Squall pulled the phone away from his ear and put Cid on speaker so they all could converse. "What band was that?"

"Djin Theory."

Quistis turned her head and looked at the phone in Squall's palm. "Oh yeah! We played with them last holiday…aren't they on tour right now?" She looked up at Rinoa and grinned. "You'd love them, Rinoa, they have a female singer who is _amazing._"

"That's the thing!" Cid said excitedly. "The producer from Siren Records—his name is Kiros Seagill—had heard about Absolute Lore from Djin Theory and was told to check you guys out. He liked what he saw and heard and contacted me barely even an hour ago to arrange a meeting with you all!"

Zell's jaw dropped and he nearly ran a red light. He slammed his foot on the break and winced when everyone was jerked forward at the sudden stop. "Sorry! Wow, that is great!" he said to Cid. "What time are we meeting him?"

"I think we'll meet for a late dinner, say…around eight o' clock?" A small noise in the background distracted Cid for a moment. "How about we all meet at Diablo's Steakhouse?"

Quistis tapped Zell's shoulder to signal that the light had turned green. "Sounds great, Cid," she told him. "We'll be there!"

"I'll pass the message on to Irvine," said Squall. "We'll see you at eight." He hung up and slid the phone back into his pants. He raised his brows to Quistis who was giving him a wide and brimming grin. "Excited?" he calmly asked.

"Aren't you?" she shrieked, reaching through the front seats and lightly punching his shoulder. "Siren Records? That's a _huge_ company—especially for rock music!" A giddy and girlish squeal came from her lips and she clapped her hands. "Holy fucking shit…is this really happening?"

"This is fucking surreal," Zell murmured. "I just can't believe it! We've done _how many_ shows in the last two years where we've been told that a producer or scout was there—and whether it was a lie or they didn't like us, who knows?—but the one night that we didn't believe it and BAM! Look what happened!"

Rinoa grinned at the excitement that filled the truck. "It just goes to show that you _never_ know who's going to show up!" She turned to Squall and grasped his bicep. "Show some emotion dammit!" she laughed. "Aren't you excited?"

He softly chuckled and placed his hand over hers. "I think I'm in shock," he said quietly. "Last night was pretty spectacular, so hearing this _today_ is…pretty overwhelming."

"Well, get over it!" Zell demanded. "Fuck—call Irvine! He can get his dick wet with Selphie any other time, we have an important meeting to get to!"

Quistis smacked his shoulder. "It's not even twelve!" she shouted. "We don't have to be at Diablo's for another eight hours, don't be crude."

Ignoring her, Zell looked at Rinoa in the rearview mirror. "Which street do I turn on again?"

She gave him detailed directions and soon Zell was pulling into her apartment complex. She talked him through the winding side streets of the complex until they reached her building. Her eyes narrowed when she noticed two men in uniform walking up her staircase.

"What the hell is this?" she whispered, her brows crinkling as she frowned.

Zell and Quistis grew quiet and watched as the men made their way to Rinoa's door and knocked. Zell parked his truck beside a large black SUV and turned in his seat to look at Rinoa with concern. "Do you know them?" he asked.

Rinoa shrugged. "They're too far away for me to tell. And I can't see what kind of uniform that is…"

"It's military," said Squall, reaching for the door handle. "I'll walk you to your door." He exited the truck and held out his hand for her to slide across the seats.

Rinoa paled at Squall's clarification that the uniforms were indeed military. That was her first thought as well, but she wasn't entirely sure since the men were too far. She placed her hand in his and hopped out of the truck. "Thanks for the ride," she said to Zell quietly before shutting the door.

She walked ahead of Squall to her staircase, feeling the eyes from the truck start training towards her as she reached the middle of the stairs. With Squall dutifully behind her, she lifted her chin to the uniformed men. "Can I help you, gentlemen?"

One of the men turned, and Rinoa felt like she recognized him. The uniform was dark and striking, the medals pinned along the lapels of his jacket caught the sun's light, and the cap on his head was sharp and proper. The insignia on his bicep was similar to the one her father wore. He was tall, had a strong and square jaw, and was looking at her with tired and aged eyes that spoke of ghastly sights he should not have seen. He had eyes like her father's. Instantly she swallowed.

"Rinoa Caraway?" the man asked.

Her gut tightened and she would have teetered backwards if it weren't for Squall placing a supportive hand to the small of her back. His voice was so stern and forward that she hadn't even thought to correct him. "Yes?" she managed to utter out. Thoughts of worst case scenarios raced through her brain, stabbing needles of anxiety throughout her body.

"I am Lieutenant General Martine and this is First Lieutenant Dobe," he said, gesturing to the other man at the door. Martine gave Rinoa a stark look and took a breath. "I will get to the point, Miss Caraway, your father is in the hospital."

This time Rinoa did take a step backwards on instinct, her foot sliding off the step. Squall snaked an arm around her waist and held her spine steady against his body, his cheek pressing into her shoulder.

"We tried to reach you last night," came in Dobe.

Rinoa blinked and quickly dug her phone from her purse. "The battery must have run out last night…" she murmured, her eyes skimming over the black surface. "What happened? Is he…?" Her throat closed up on her. She couldn't even pronounce the word—couldn't even _think_ it.

"He's stable," answered Martine.

"_What happened?_" Rinoa repeated, the words practically snarling through her teeth.

Martine took a deep breath and his eyes flickered to Squall. "Perhaps we should move this conversation inside…"

Squall's grip around Rinoa's waist tightened, his fingers digging into her side. "That may be best…" he began.

She furiously shook her head. "No," she said sternly with her eyes directed on Martine. "You may know my father but I sure as hell don't know you. Whatever you have to say to me you can say it out here. I will not ask you again, Lieutenant General, what happened to my father?"

Astonishment washed over Martine's face, if only for a second. With the glowering scowl and heated stare, he could definitely tell whose daughter he was speaking to. While it was obvious she got her looks from her mother, her temperament was clearly blessed from her father. "Last night was our annual banquet for the new recruits," he started. "Your father was…celebrating."

Rinoa's shoulders drooped. She closed her eyes and listened as Martine continued.

"He appeared to be under control. He wasn't rowdy, wasn't slurring, nor was he falling over himself. When he and I shared a cab, the only symptom that seemed problematic was that he suffered confusion." Martine shook his head. "I should have gone inside with him…" he muttered beneath his breath. "It wasn't until around two a.m. did I receive the phone call. After he went inside he continued to drink…"

As Martine went on about Caraway's events from the night before, Rinoa felt her body slowly become numb. She knew what he was saying, understood his words, but they simply flew past her. Her father suffered from alcohol poisoning after more alcohol was in his stomach than anything else. His blood sugar level dropped low enough for him to have a seizure, causing him to fall and land headfirst onto the brick oven he'd had installed in the backyard.

Mr. Villicente, the next door neighbor, suffered from insomnia and happened to be outside smoking a cigar at the time. He witnessed the whole accident from his bedroom's balcony and rushed into Caraway's backyard, immediately calling an ambulance and Caraway's last number dialed—Martine's.

Rinoa swallowed as she listened. Suddenly she had a bitter taste in her mouth. Her tongue felt thick and heavy…she felt as if she were going to vomit. "What hospital is he in?" she asked softly.

"Lady Adel's Memorial Hospital," Dobe said. "In Galbadia. Room 512."

Rinoa nodded. "Ok," she whispered. "Thank you for telling me." She glanced towards her apartment door and pressed her lips together. "I'm going to change and then I will be on my way to see him."

Martine and Dobe tipped their hats to Rinoa and began to descend the steps. Dobe nodded at Squall in automatic politeness but then paused, recognition filling his face. "Commander Leonhart," he said.

Squall nodded in acknowledgement even though the title no longer held any meaning to him. "First Lieutenant Dobe," he replied.

Dobe's eyes traveled back to Rinoa for a breath before landing on Squall again. He gave the younger man a quick and civil smile before continuing his way down the steps.

Squall waited for the men to enter their vehicle before turning to Rinoa. "You ok?"

Rinoa simply blinked. "Yeah," she whispered before digging back into her purse for her keys. Once she had them in her clutch she walked up the remaining steps, not even noticing Squall's arm retracting from her waist. She unlocked the door and looked down at him still standing at the midway mark.

"Did you need someone to come with you?" he asked cautiously.

Rinoa smiled, her lashes lowering at the offer. While the thought was nice and sweet of him, it was unnecessary. It was too much to ask from him too soon. It was bad enough that she had to reveal her biggest secret to a man she hardly knew anything about, she was not about to have him accompany her to the hospital to see her father. _I don't want to scare him off __**this**__ soon,_ she thought. "Thanks, but I'm alright." She pushed open the door and waved him off. "Let me know how your meeting with Siren Records goes."

Taking the hint, Squall started to turn. "Text me later," he said. "Just so I know you got there."

"I will. Thank you." She stepped inside and quietly closed the door behind her. With the world outside completely shut off, she slid down to the ground and cried.


	13. Chapter 13

When Squall climbed back into the truck, Quistis whirled around in her seat. "What happened?" she asked, her aquamarine eyes large with concern. "Is Rinoa ok?"

Squall nodded and strapped himself back in. "Family shit," he told her lowly. "Her dad's sick. Those were his associates."

Zell let out a low groan and gripped the steering wheel. "Should we stay with her? I mean, is it really ok if we leave her alone?" Though he didn't know the whole situation, he couldn't imagine leaving Rinoa behind if she needed support.

"She told me to go," Squall said. "I don't think it's really "ok" to leave her alone but that's what she wants right now."

Quistis clamped her lips together but softly nodded. "Well, she has our numbers," she murmured. "She'll probably call Selphie later, those two have definitely rekindled their close friendship over the last two weeks."

The little fact caused Squall to still. Had it really only been two weeks? As he mentally relived through the days that had passed since he met Rinoa, he found that they all blurred together. He had seen her nearly every single day since the day he met her outside of the diner. She had walked right in front of him, not even noticing that he was standing in front of the entrance. He remembered how she jumped when he had made his presence known. She looked so pretty in that long flowing blue top that she wore that looked more like a dress on her petite frame. Her legs were so slender in those tight black leggings. And then that tattoo…he wanted to press his fingertips into where the ink was dotted across her shoulder blades and arms, wanted to _feel_ the detail that was permanently marked into her flesh.

When he met Rinoa, the physical attraction was most certainly there, but when she opened up that pretty little mouth of hers and was able to easily slip him one liners that left him speechless—if only for the briefest moment—his intrigue was piqued. It became his mission to render her thunderstruck with his own comebacks, but not because he liked having the final word (although he normally was one to have the last word), but because he liked the little drop of her jaw that happened when she was without words, liked the way her eyes widened and the way he could tell that the wheels in her head were turning so she could come back with something else.

He was captivated with simply her presence. She was free spirited and quirky and held her own. She was independent and knew what she wanted for her life, she didn't need—or want—someone to map it out for her. He liked that about her…it was admirable. For someone like him, who had been told what to do and where to live and how to act for nearly his whole life, Rinoa's carefree lifestyle was both enviable and intimidating.

Of course, he made his own decisions when it came to his life, but for him, his life wasn't _just_ his. He had to make decisions that would benefit Ellone as well. Going forward with the band was something he never thought he'd do, he thought it some dream that would never be fulfilled and instead looked at Absolute Lore as the hobby he enjoyed the most. Now that he was retired and financially set (perhaps not for _life_ but for many years to come) he decided that perhaps going forward with the band could be worthwhile.

And now…here they were, preparing to have a meeting with some big shot producer who worked with an equally big shot record company. The fact hadn't quite hit him yet…half his mind was still very much trained on Rinoa and the way he felt her body clench beneath his hand as she learned of her father's whereabouts.

Squall's phone started ringing and he pulled it out of his pocket. Irvine's name flashed across the screen and Squall answered. "Awake finally?"

"Yeah…where'd everybody go?"

"Quistis wanted pancakes and we had to take Rinoa home."

Irvine let out a groan. "Selphie's calling her right now, she feels really bad that she forgot she drove her here…" He made another noise within his throat and Squall could hear him shifting around as if he were sitting up. "Anyway, I saw that I missed a call from Cid so I called him back—are we all on the same page?"

"The meeting with Kiros Seagill at eight?" Squall clarified.

"Yep. Fantastic. Also, I just got off the phone with Seifer, he said that we can all meet up at Hyperion Image's studio if we wanted to go over the footage from last night. Me and Selphie are gonna head back to my place and shower real quick."

"Zell's dropping me off right now, just send me the address." Squall relayed the message to the Zell and Quistis and they all concurred that they would head over after they had cleaned themselves up. "So…what? Get there around one-thirty?"

"Ish," Irvine said. "Cool. See you there."

* * *

When Squall pulled up to the studio Selphie immediately bounded up to him. Her large green eyes looked up at him and she tugged on his arm. "You were there with her," she whispered. "Is she ok?"

Squall glanced behind him and watched Zell and Quistis pull themselves out of his Jeep. "She said she was fine," he told Selphie. "But you know her situation better than I do."

"I only just found out about her dad's alcoholism," Selphie admitted. "I knew that she and her dad never had the greatest relationship but I never asked why." She ran a thumb over her lip in worry. "I only knew that it was something she didn't like talking about."

Squall watched as Selphie's thoughts raced through her head. He found it surprising that Rinoa had shared this intimate detail with him. He wasn't one for displaying his own personal dirty laundry and he certainly did not take Rinoa to one either. Although…like Selphie mentioned, he was there. If he hadn't have been in the "right" place at the right time, he probably never would have known.

"Well…did she say anything to anyone else?" Selphie asked quietly. "I just don't want to say something that shouldn't be said…I didn't even tell Irvine, only told him that she had to go see her dad today."

"I said something similar," Squall sighed. "Zell and Quistis were in the car but they saw the men who were at Rinoa's door. I just told them that her dad was sick. If she wants to give more details then that is her business."

Selphie gently nodded in agreement. "Ok," she whispered. "Great, just wanted to know exactly what was going on so I don't open my big mouth." She looked over her shoulder and saw Irvine wave to them. "Alright, well…we'll just wait around to hear from her and hope for the best!" She crossed her fingers and turned around on her heels.

As Squall made his way to the door his phone beeped. He stroked a thumb over Rinoa's name and read her text.

_R.H: At the hospital, he's sleeping. _

_S.L: Good prognosis?_

_R.H: Concussion. They want to keep him for a few more days to see if he has any severe post-concussion symptoms that may require an MRI or CT scan._

_S.L: Let me know if you need anything._

_R.H: Thanks =)_

Squall slid the phone back into his pocket and entered the building. The building housed several different businesses. As Squall followed Irvine he saw that some of the units belonged to other small companies. It was a nice location for businesses to get their start.

Hyperion Images took root on the third floor and faced the parking lot. When Squall entered he found that there were three rooms that opened up to face the center "lobby." He was instantly greeted by Raijin and his large and booming smile.

"How's it going, Squall?" asked the larger man, ushering him into the room where three monitors were set up with Seifer in the middle. "Welcome to our office. Did you want anything to drink? I think Wedge just made a fresh pot of coffee."

"I'm fine for now, thanks."

Seifer whirled around in his chair and grinned at all who entered. "Perfect timing," he drawled. "I'm just about finished with uploading all the footage from the memory card." He gestured toward the small black loveseat that sat in the corner of the room. "Sit! Please, make yourselves comfortable."

"We won't stay too long," Irvine said. "We have a meeting with a producer tonight." He spoke so casually as if he were saying that they were having dinner with a neighbor, but the gleam in his eyes spoke volumes about the excitement that dwelled within him.

Seifer turned his head. "No shit!" he exclaimed.

"I_ told_ you!" Raijin called from the other room. "Didn't I tell him?" he laughed, slapping a hand onto Zell's back. "I told you that I overheard some producer was in the crowd!" He gave Zell a congratulatory fist bump before joining in Seifer's room. "Man, that's some exciting shit," he said. "Glad to hear it—you guys are fucking amazing. I had heard one of your songs on the radio several months back, it was great to hear it live."

"Honored to give you the Absolute Lore experience!" Zell replied.

Seifer stood from his chair and crossed over to make himself a cup of coffee. "Where's Rinoa? I thought she'd come with you guys."

Selphie stole a quick glance at Squall before answering. His face showed no reaction when Seifer mentioned Rinoa's name but Selphie caught the movement of Squall's left hand curling into a fist before releasing and extending his fingers. "She's spending the day with her dad," she answered.

"Oh, that's good. I'm sure she enjoys father-daughter time." Seifer stirred in the sugar and reached into the mini-fridge for the creamer. With his back turned he missed the looks exchanged between Selphie and Squall.

Cutting through the rising tension, Zell approached Seifer's desk. "Mind if I watch you edit?" he asked. "I notice you're using this editing software I've been thinking about buying. What're your thoughts on it?"

"Sure." Seifer returned to his desk and the two engaged in a lengthy conversation about the multitudes of design software and programs that had been released over the years while Squall uncrossed his arms and headed outside.

Selphie followed him down the three flights of stairs. "He doesn't seem to know her at all," she said, her eyes squinting at the bright sunlight that welcomed them outside. "But he sure as hell is trying to act like he does. Why?" She twisted her lips in thought, her eyes diligently watching Squall light up a cigarette from his brand new pack.

Squall shrugged and exhaled the smoke. "Who knows," he muttered. "It's not my place."

* * *

Rinoa scrawled her name on the visitor's log. "Thank you," she murmured to the nurse who handed her the visitor's day pass. "Which way is room 512?"

"Oh, Estelle, I'll take her up," said a woman in dark red scrubs who happened to just be passing by. She gave Rinoa a sweet yet very tired looking smile and gestured for her to follow towards the elevator. "It's on my way," she told Rinoa as she fussed with her hair and smoothed the dark brown strands into a low ponytail. "Who are you visiting?"

"My father," Rinoa answered quietly. "He uh, fell and hit his head really hard last night. I just found out this morning from his coworkers."

The woman winced and offered a sympathetic shake to Rinoa's shoulder. "I'm sorry," she whispered. The elevator lit up and the woman ushered Rinoa inside.

Rinoa shrugged and pressed her lips together. "I don't even know how he is yet," she said. "I don't suppose you have heard anything about a patient named Fury Caraway?"

The woman shook her head. "No, I'm sorry," she grimaced. "This wing isn't my 'department.' I work on the other side of the hospital with amputees, not patients of head trauma. I'm only on this side because one of my engineers is measuring another patient of ours who is scheduled for an MRI in an hour."

The elevator doors slid open and the woman led Rinoa down the hallway that veered left. "All the even numbers will be on the right," she said, giving Rinoa another supportive touch to the shoulder. "I hope everything goes well with your father."

"Thank you," Rinoa said, watching as the woman in scrubs dashed off in the other direction. When Rinoa found the room she gently pushed the door open.

Caraway was peacefully resting, the rise and fall of his chest even and steady. The sight of the bandage wrapped around his head gave Rinoa a shock, the stark white material so exaggeratedly contrasting against Caraway's dark hair.

With a soft sigh she pulled up a chair and sat beside the bed. A nurse came in immediately after, having seen her come in.

"Hello," the nurse whispered. "Are you his daughter?"

Rinoa nodded. "Yes, I'm Rinoa. How is he doing?"

The nurse quietly pulled up a second chair and joined Rinoa. "His vitals are pretty stable," she began. "We have him hooked up to an IV just so he can get some fluids in him. Alcohol poisoning is very dehydrating to the body. Because of the blow to the head we have diagnosed him with a grade three concussion. He's been resting all morning and hasn't been 'popping in and out' much so that's a good sign. The laceration on the side of his head did require some stitches but luckily he missed his temple. Another inch south and the prognosis might not have been as good."

Rinoa inwardly swore and nervously chewed on her thumb. "Does he have any brain damage?"

The nurse took in a slow breath and clasped her hands together. "It's hard to say…but we are very hopeful that he does not. When he did regain consciousness we asked him the normal questions: "What is your name?" "Where do you live?" "What's your daughter's name?" and he did answer them correctly so that is a very good sign. We'd like to keep him for a few days just to keep an eye on him. We don't think an MRI or CT scan is necessary, but we'd like to observe him just to be sure."

As the information sank into Rinoa's brain she found that all she could do was nod. "Ok," she whispered. "Thank you."

The nurse gently smiled and patted Rinoa's knee. "Stay as long as you like," she said. "My name is Artemis and I'll be checking in often. Let me know if you're hungry or need anything to drink, I can grab it from the cafeteria."

Rinoa smiled. "Thank you," she said again, this time lifting her eyes so they met with the nurse's. After Artemis closed the door behind her, Rinoa pulled out her phone.

_R.H: At the hospital, he's sleeping. _

After she sent the text to Squall she balked, her lips forming a horrified grimace. Originally she meant to text Selphie first, but she didn't know what to blame—her mind or her fingers—for scrolling past Selphie's name and going straight to Squall's. "Shit," she muttered, suddenly berating herself; it wasn't like she was sending anything embarrassing, and he did tell her to let him know what was going on. "Be cool," she demanded herself.

But when the phone vibrated in her hand at the incoming text from Squall, she nearly yelped and dropped it.

_S.L: Good prognosis?_

_R.H: Concussion. They want to keep him for a few more days to see if he has any severe post-concussion symptoms that may require an MRI or CT scan._

_S.L: Let me know if you need anything._

_R.H: Thanks =)_

Rinoa let out a sigh. Texting was amazing. It was so much easier to appear calm and cool and collected through typed out words. On the phone's screen she sounded direct and reserved…in person she knew she would turn into a blabbering idiot.

Caraway made a gruff noise within his throat and Rinoa jumped, suddenly turning her phone into a juggling act that would befit any rowdy circus. One glance was all it took to tell her that her father was simply mumbling in his sleep. With another sigh she slipped the phone into her purse and listened to the rhythm of Caraway's heart beat electrically produced by the machine.

* * *

Zell's eyes widened when he noticed that not only was one of the cameras aimed on Rinoa for quite some time, it had also captured the shy smile and lip biting that occurred when she focused her camera on Squall. He turned over to see if Seifer had noticed as well, but quickly discovered that he was a bit preoccupied at the time thanks to a very in-depth conversation with Quistis about how she knew how to work the camera.

"Rinoa says that too," Quistis said, shyly touching her chin as she listened to Seifer compliment her.

"And it's true!" Seifer earnestly agreed. "Being photogenic isn't enough—and while, yes, you are very pretty—you also have to know how to be _comfortable_ in front of the camera. And from what I've seen in the videos, you're very comfortable on stage and you just _let it out_."

Quistis smiled widely. "Well…the stage is where I'm meant to be," she said.

Seifer nodded and arced his chair back to the monitors. "Definitely." He moved his gaze to Zell and grinned. "You, on the other hand, look like a wild dumb-fuck of a chicken squawking around on stage."

Zell scowled and roughly shoved Seifer, nearly causing him to tumble out of his chair. "Fuck off," he snapped.

"Behave," Quistis ordered, sending a swift kick to Seifer's shin.

"I'm kidding, I'm kidding!" he laughed. "A little."

Quistis stood to her feet and moved to join the others. "Sure…" she called over her shoulder. She wrapped her arm around Selphie and rested against her shoulder. "Got any gum?" she asked. "I want this coffee taste out of my mouth."

"Yeah, somewhere in here." Selphie dug through her purse and pulled out the pack. She handed a stick to Quistis and then frowned when she saw Squall hold out his hand. "Can I help you?" she teased.

His response was just him curling his fingers towards his empty palm.

Selphie let out a small laugh and placed a stick of gum into his begging hand. "You're welcome!" she shouted when he placed the gum into his mouth and walked away to toss the wrapper.

"Mm-hmm," he murmured.

"Wow, your camera sure is focused on our lovely little photographer," Irvine commented, causing Squall to glance over. On screen was Rinoa busily snapping shots of random people in the crowd. Her shoulders shook lightly as she laughed. Her hips swiveled a bit to the beat. She turned to the side and aimed her camera in various other corners of the venue before aiming back on stage.

Seifer looked over to the screen and lifted his shoulders casually. "What camera is that…" he murmured to himself. "Camera three…oh yeah. I was using her as a marker in the beginning," he said. "Wait, I wasn't on the ground when this song was playing." He looked down at his notepad that he had scribbled on the night before and matched it up with the song that played on screen. "Yeah…during your third song I was up on the staircase…who was on the ground?" He ran his finger down his notes and turned around. "Biggs!" he hollered.

Biggs popped his head around the corner, his eyes wide. "Yes?"

"You had camera three aimed on Rinoa for quite some time," Seifer said, his lips turning into a teasing grin. "What'd I tell you? Our job is to record the paying subjects, not the pretty girls in the area."

Biggs blushed but returned an earnest smile. "Sorry, boss," he said bashfully. "I couldn't help it. It was hypnotizing watching her work!"

"I can see that!" Seifer laughed.

"Rinoa does have that effect on people," Quistis said to Biggs, giving him a brotherly punch to the shoulder. "When she comes into the room with that long black hair, big brown eyes, and darling laugh…you just can't keep your eyes off of her!"

"Or hands, for that matter," Squall added, pointedly arching a brow at Quistis, who returned the action with her middle finger in the air.

Seifer snickered at the light-hearted comments between the two. "Oh really," he said, his interest peaked. "Shit, what'd we miss last night since we had to bail out early due to _someone_ who couldn't hold their liquor?" He craned his neck and eyed Wedge who was greedily chugging down coffee like there was no tomorrow. Following Quistis's lead, Wedge gave Seifer the finger without averting any attention away from his beloved coffee mug.

"_Nothing_ happened last night," Quistis said firmly. "At least…not with _me._" She placed her fingertips along her collar bone as she innocently batted her eyelashes. "All I did was fondle her shirt's zipper and that was this morning."

"I didn't see Rinoa much at the party," Seifer said with a shrug. "I want to get in touch with her eventually though, see if we can share some images that she took for our web page."

"You'll see her soon enough, I'm sure," Irvine said.

Wedge held up his fingers in air-quotes. "Yeah, "get in touch with her," he says." When Seifer sent him a nasty look, Wedge simply chuckled and leaned against the countertop. "I wasn't the only one paying special attention to her," he said. "I bet that if you looked at the footage on the camera Seifer used for the rest of the night you'd see quite a bit of the girl."

As Wedge continued teasing Seifer for staring at Rinoa during the gig, Squall sighed and turned away, scooping up his cigarettes again.

"Smoking buddy!" Quistis shouted, throwing her arms around his shoulders and walking in time with him out the door. Outside, she shielded her eyes from the sun and graciously accepted the lit cigarette Squall handed to her. "Thank you."

"Anytime."

He wasn't sure if it was because Seifer had always had that tendency to annoy him or if it was because he kept mentioning Rinoa, but Squall had to get out of the building before he said or did something stupid. True, Rinoa wasn't _his,_ but last night she was certainly flocking more towards him than Seifer or any other male at the party. He saw her make small talk with a few guys from the other bands that had played, but she didn't give any of them that slow, meltingly hot smile that she gave him…over and over.

Squall glanced over and cocked his head as he watched Quistis type on her phone. He exhaled the smoke through his nose and lifted his chin at her. "Who's that?"

"Rinoa," she answered, squinting her eyes in the sunlight so she could read the screen. "I texted her to see if she was ok and if there was anything she needed. She said she was fine, her dad woke up and is all groggy."

"That's good to hear."

Quistis nodded and shoved her phone back into her pocket. "Her dad's at LAMH," she said. "You should swing by and check on her tomorrow when you're at work."

Unsure of what she meant by that, he simply stared in response.

"Don't look at me like that," she said. "You and I both know she'll most likely be there if he's not going to be discharged for at least a few days. It's not like she has to work tomorrow." Quistis sucked on her cigarette and shoved at Squall's bicep. "Bring her flowers," she commanded.

"Why?"

Quistis made a face. "Dude. You've been with plenty of girls, this should not be any kind of brand new information for you. When a girl is upset—especially in a hospital—it is good form to bring her flowers."

"You've been to the gift shop," Squall scoffed. "You know they're pathetic."

"Then go to an actual florist!"

Squall put out his cigarette and started to head for the door, ignoring Quistis's demands. As he walked through the hallway that led to Hyperion Images, he came across Seifer on his phone.

The other man glanced up and sent Squall a grin that nearly made him pause in his tracks. "Hey, Leonhart," Seifer said, motioning for Squall to come over.

"You're in front of the door I need to enter," Squall stated. "Of course I'm going to come over."

Seifer just snickered.

With an aggravated sigh Squall reluctantly stepped in front of him. "What?" he asked.

"How long have we been friends?" Seifer asked with that grin still plastered upon his face. His eyes sparked with a dark mischief that spoke of ulterior motives. When Squall hesitated in answering, Seifer tilted his head. "Aw, come on, Leonhart, how long have we known each other?"

Squall narrowed his eyes and tried to read Seifer's expression, but all he saw was that stupid and sneering grin displayed on his face. It was true, they had known each other for a very long time—almost as long as he had known Zell—however, Squall couldn't say with a straight face that they were exactly _friends._

"Too long," finally came Squall's reply.

Seifer threw his head back and released a crackling laugh. "You're funny," he said. "But seriously, we've known each other a long time…and you think that I wouldn't notice when something is off?"

Squall shook his head. "What are you talking about?"

"Every time I mentioned Rinoa you'd either storm outside to have a cigarette or you'd make sure to walk into another room."

Squall only looked at him and kept his face stone still. Seifer wasn't as stupid as he acted sometimes and what he did lack in brains he made up for with wiseass comments and the ability to catch people in a lie.

"There something going on between you and Rinoa?" Seifer asked, that damn mouth of his still smiling.

Squall snapped his gum between his teeth. "No," he said simply. "I just met her."

Seifer let out a deep and rumbling laugh. "The fact that you 'just met her' is irrelevant!" he grinned. "Rinoa's got this spark inside her that is just filled to the brim with some kind of magnetic pull."

While Squall agreed with Seifer's statement, he wasn't about to say that out loud. He kept his face expressionless while he waited for Seifer to continue.

As if Squall's blank face was the most hysterical thing, Seifer cracked up laughing and joyfully sent a punch to his left arm. "You are too much, Leonhart," he said, grinning even wider when Squall winced at the blow. "She's got her claws in you."

_More like mine were in her,_ Squall thought.

Seifer held up his hands and turned around to grasp the door handle. "Hey, there is absolutely no judging here, my friend," he said. "She is definitely hard to resist."

Squall watched as Seifer disappeared back into the office. He couldn't deny it; he wasn't entirely sure what it was about Rinoa that just made him want to be beside her. The tiny look of fear that flashed over her face when he confirmed that the men at her door were indeed of the military and the little hitch in her breath when they told her that Carway was in the hospital…it made him want to hold her and protect her from the travesties of this world. It was an entirely male feeling, to want to protect something smaller—not weaker—than him, even when that smaller being did not ask for or want that protection.

He thought of the little smiles of hers that had been caught by Seifer's camera. Because of Biggs' angle, Squall couldn't quite tell what she was smiling about but he wanted to keep her smiling.

* * *

At Diablo's Steakhouse, Kiros had been able to reserve the sectioned off portion. He was tall, towering over Irvine, and offered a glistening white smile that glowed against the dark tint of his skin. His suit was trim and well-fitting to his muscular shape. His dreadlocks were tied back and away from his face. As he approached them the lamp's light caught the silver hoops that were threaded through his left eyebrow.

"Kiros Seagill," he said, introducing himself to each of the band members. "Pleasure." He waved his hand at the large and empty table that awaited them. "Please, sit." When everyone sat down, Kiros waited until the server had collected everyone's drink orders.

Cid cleared his throat and spoke first. "So, Mr. Seagill, did you enjoy the show?"

"Kiros, please," he said. "And, yes! It was amazing, I can hardly put it into words."

"Cid mentioned that you heard about us through Djin Theory," Irvine mentioned. "How did that come about?"

"Well, we were going through some old videos of previous shows that Djin Theory had played in the past," Kiros said. He scratched his chin as he tried to remember the exact video he had watched. "I believe it was from the show that was at The Card Queen's Deck," he murmured.

Zell piped up. "Oh yeah! That show was _awesome,_" he exclaimed with a wide grin. That night Absolute Lore had played their set right before the headlining Djin Theory. And then during Djin Theory's twenty minute encore, they brought Absolute Lore back onto the stage and played together. They had played another gig with them about two months later during Christmas and many in the crowd voiced their desires for their "duet" to happen again.

"I was very impressed with the encore," Kiros chuckled. "Especially you, Squall." He turned his head slightly to lock eye contact with the younger man. "Now, these three were easily able to bring their instruments back on stage since theirs are much more portable…but you, on the other hand, obviously could not. So instead…"

Squall remembered, during the last song he came onto the stage and practically picked up Esteban by the collar and forced him off his own throne. While Esteban laughed and accepted his fate, Squall sat himself down and easily played Djin Theory's last song.

"His kit is different than yours though, isn't it?" Kiros asked.

"Yes, he only had one floor tom and his crash symbol is on the other side," Squall answered. It had only taken a moment of him staring at Esteban's kit for Squall to strategize his next move. He wasn't going to add that Esteban's set up was the most basic set up that Squall had ever seen. He tried to remember the last time his own kit looked like that, and he deduced that it was probably around the time he started to learn how to drum, back when he was twelve and had just moved in with Ellone.

Kiros nodded and glanced over the faces of the others. "Well, it was one hell of a show. Even though your bands have different tones and sounds, when you guys played together it was harmonious and complemented each other very well. Which is why I actually came to see your show last night."

The servers approached and took their orders. While they waited, Kiros went on about what he did as Djin Theory's producer. He wasn't just their recording album producer, he also worked closely with their tour manager. "Basically, my job is to ensure that not only will they have a successful album release but also a successful tour!"

"What does that have to do with us?" Squall asked sharply.

Beneath the table Irvine kicked Squall's calf and Cid shot him a look from across the table. "Dude," Irvine hissed, ignoring the snarl that Squall gave him.

Kiros only laughed and waved his hand at Squall. "While my top priority is the success of Djin Theory, I believe that we can help each other out. I'm also interested in your success as well." Kiros saw the servers approach with their food and he leaned back and waited until everyone had a plate before them. "As you know, Djin Theory has been on tour for the last two months and have about three months left of it. However, one of the band's touring with them had to drop out unexpectedly—a family member has sadly fallen very ill, so he has decided to go home to be with them."

The news caused them all to steal glances at each other in anticipation as they waited for Kiros to continue. Selphie gripped Irvine's thigh beneath the table and he quickly laced his fingers with hers.

"We need a band to fill the spot," Kiros mentioned casually as he cut into his medium rare steak. "Interested?"


	14. Chapter 14

**A/N: Hi! I've been on vacation the last few days so this update came much earlier than expected! Thank you again for the reviews...much appreciated!**

* * *

The next day Rinoa was listening as Caraway was telling her a story about her mother and how she had fallen over because she was spinning around and singing along to the radio in the kitchen. "It was in our first apartment together," he was saying. "We were so young then—younger than you now—and she was washing the dishes so there was some water on the floor." A tiny smile hinted at the corner of his mouth as he thought back to the memory. "I remember watching her and even saying "Be careful, Julia, there's water on the floor," and she just responded by tossing her hair at me and singing even louder. Then she slipped and fell and broke her elbow."

Rinoa made a short, smothered, snort of a laugh. She can't imagine that the fall had felt good, but the no-nonsense and casual way Caraway spoke of the accident made the incident hysterical. She could imagine her mother laying on her back and flipping Caraway off as he simply sighed and said, "I told you so."

She couldn't remember too much about her mother, but what she remembered the most was the relationship between her parents. They were complete opposites. Julia was spunky and did whatever she felt like doing. Caraway, who had been trained to take orders, had been promoted to now _give_ orders. Julia hated planning; she reasoned it was because every time she ever tried to plan something out it ended up backfiring and only resulted in her being disappointed and miserable. Caraway had to have everything mapped out to the littlest detail.

Despite their differences, Rinoa remembered her parents always smiling and laughing together. One of her favorite memories of them together was during Rinoa's fifth birthday party—a mere two months before Julia's death—she had glanced up from her feast of cake and ice cream and witnessed Caraway twirling Julia in his arms. He caught her in his arms and dipped her low, his lips grinning widely as she tipped her head back, exposing the curve of her throat. Julia snapped her head forward and laughed, her eyes crinkling and nose scrunching as she leaned forward and kissed her husband.

Little Rinoa jumped off of her chair and wedged herself between her parents, demanding her father to pick her up. She was sandwiched between them and then smothered with kisses, Julia's lipstick little red markings across Rinoa's cheeks. _"I want someone to dance with me like you dance with Mommy!"_ she had told Caraway as she squealed beneath Julia's smooches.

_"__If a man will not twirl with you in the kitchen then he is not a man!" _Julia had laughed.

At the time Rinoa had no idea what her mother was talking about, but now she understood. Even though her father had that rough exterior he exposed his soft, squishy and loving center for only the woman he loved and their daughter.

"Even though she was in pain she still continued to sing!" Caraway chuckled. "_Carry on my wayward son/There'll be peace when you are gone/Lay your weary head to rest/Don't you cry no more…_" Caraway shook his head and exhaled a breath. "After that she would sing that song just to annoy me."

A knock came at the door and Rinoa pulled away from the bed. "Come in!" she called over her shoulder. As the door slowly swung open she continued laughing with her father. "I know, I remember her singing it all the time and then you would give her a sharp look."

She stood to her feet and turned around, expecting to see one of the nurses or another doctor because she had overheard someone mentioning a shift change. She was most definitely _not _expecting to see Squall standing in the door's threshold—in dark red hospital scrubs no less. She was also very much in awe to see that he had his hair tied back into a very low ponytail.

Her mouth parted in surprise. "What…?" she stammered out.

He smiled and waved two fingers at her. "I'm on break," he said casually. "Thought I'd cross over to this wing to see how he was doing."

"You work here?" she asked, gesturing towards the scrubs. "Are you a nurse?"

Squall shook his head. "No, I do physical therapy for amputee soldiers who have been fitted with prosthetics. I work with a few others to retrain them to fight with their new limbs." He quietly closed the door behind him.

Caraway loudly shuffled within his bed so that he could get a better look at him. "You work with the biomedical engineering department?" he asked curiously.

Squall took a look at the older man. His head was wrapped in gauze to hold the bandage against his right temple in place. He had dark hollows beneath his eyes and deep creases around his mouth but still managed to put on a firm and polite smile. "Yes sir," Squall said. "My sister works with the engineers directly and fits the prosthetics to the patients. After they are fitted I work with them so that they are stable enough to report back to duty."

Caraway lifted his chin as he took note of how Squall's tone and stature changed when he spoke to him rather than Rinoa. "You're military, aren't you, son?" he asked. "What branch?"

"SEED."

"Ah." Caraway looked back to Rinoa. "Didn't you mention the other day that you were working with someone who was SEED?"

Rinoa nodded. "Yes, Caraway, this is Squall. He's the drummer from the band I'm shooting."

Realization crossed over Caraway's face and he placed a hand to his forehead. "That's right," he murmured. "I'm terribly sorry, young man, I seem to be a bit forgetful thanks to this injury. Are you still affiliated with SEED?"

"Not directly. How are you feeling, General?"

Caraway sighed and leaned back against the wall. "Like a damn fool," he muttered. "Never in my life have I been babied like this. I've had concussions before."

Rinoa rolled her eyes and crossed her arms over her breasts. "That's the point," she said sharply. "You've had concussions in the past and that is not something to brag about. They just want to keep you here for a few days to make sure you didn't damage your brain too much due to the fall." She tucked a strand behind her ear and eyed the gauze wrapped around his head. "You hit your head really hard, it required stitches."

"I feel fine," Caraway urged. "My pride is more wounded than my head."

"Unfortunately I can't offer any relief for wounded pride. So suck it up and do as the doctor says," Rinoa tossed at him.

It was a sight Squall found most amusing. The big, almighty General Fury Caraway being ordered to 'suck it up' from his tiny little daughter. Squall was sure that if he were not in the room, Carway would have been showing Rinoa a pout just to spite her.

Instead, since there was someone to bear witness, Caraway only sighed and held out his hands in defeat. "Yes, my darling daughter," he said. "Can you grab me some of the ibuprofen from the cabinet?"

"Headache?" she asked.

"Yes, although I must say I'm certain it only came forward since you started berating me."

Squall accidentally let out a laugh and glanced away when Rinoa turned her angry eyes towards him. "Sorry."

Rinoa scoffed. "Oh, don't you start with me," she warned, shaking a finger in his direction. She grabbed the pills from the cabinet and fetched a bottle of water from the mini-fridge. "When did you last eat?" she asked Caraway. "You know these things will tear a hole in your lining if you take it on an empty stomach."

"A few hours ago," Caraway mentioned, thinking back to the delicious blueberry muffin Artemis had brought him.

"You should probably eat now before you take these."

Rinoa lifted a brow at the gurgling growl that sounded off from Caraway's stomach. She eyed him pointedly. "Hungry?" she asked.

Caraway twisted his lips, unamused at his body's loud demand for nourishment. "I'm not starving," he proclaimed. "But I could eat."

"I'll get you something from the cafeteria. What do you want?"

Caraway thought for a moment. "Soup," he said. "Soup sounds divine right now. See if they have broccoli and cheddar in those sourdough bread bowls."

"Ok." She turned to Squall who was already opening the door for her. "Care to join me?" she asked with that dazzling smile of hers.

"Of course."

"Great, because I don't even know where the cafeteria is."

Squall led her to the elevator. "It's back on the first floor."

"I like the hairstyle," she said, gently running her fingertips over the wisps of hair that protruded from the hair band.

His hand automatically reached up and smoothed over his hair. "Yeah, when I walk around the hospital I have to wear it tied back. When I'm doing the physical therapy I can have it down. So I either have to keep it long enough to keep it in a ponytail for work or I have to shave my head."

Rinoa clamped her lips shut to keep in a laugh. She tried to visualize Squall with a crew cut but the picture just was not forming in her mind. "I don't think I can see you with short hair," she laughed. "Don't cut your hair. Ever. Long hair suits you."

"I think so too."

The elevator opened up for them and he escorted her inside.

"Your dad looks like he's doing well," Squall said once they were inside.

Rinoa gave him a smile and nodded. "He is," she said. "Like he said, it seems his pride took the largest blow."

Squall watched as the numbers above them slowly decreased. "Have you said anything to him about his drinking?"

With a long sigh Rinoa just shook her head. "No," she muttered. "I'm hoping I can contact Martine and stage an intervention. Maybe if Caraway hears it from his associate he might actually take it seriously."

The elevator opened and Squall placed his hand upon the small of Rinoa's back, causing her to suck in a breath. It was such a small touch, but the contact was enough to send little sparks of warmth throughout her veins. He moved her toward the buffet that was the cafeteria.

Not long after Rinoa was carrying a plastic bag in her hand as Squall led her back to the elevator. She couldn't help but notice that he received a few double-take glances from some of the women in the cafeteria. One of them looked to be just barely over sixteen and had clearly not seen a handsome _man_ in her lifetime…at least, not in person.

Though these women stared, Squall had paid none of them any attention and carried on towards the elevator. Whether he was truly that oblivious or he simply chose to ignore, Rinoa wasn't entirely sure, but she was amused regardless.

"What?" he asked when he saw her trying not to laugh as they waited.

"Nothing." Rinoa shifted the plastic bag's handle between her fingers and cleared her throat. "I had no idea that this was what you did for a living," she said. "To be honest, I had thought about what you did for work since you said you were no longer with SEED but I just couldn't figure out what."

Squall chuckled and pressed the 'up' button with his thumb. "Yeah, I've been doing this for a little over a year and a half. My sister helped me get the job."

"Yeah, you mentioned she works here too?"

"She works with amputees and the engineers who custom make the prosthetics."

Rinoa blinked and thought back to a similar conversation that happened the day before. She knew Squall had said something about his sister to Caraway…but she wasn't paying much attention, she was too busy staring at his little ponytail. _That woman! _"Um…does she have brown hair darker than yours and also wear dark red scrubs?"

Squall looked over at Rinoa, his brows furrowed slightly in confusion. "Yes. How did you know?" The elevator doors before them slid open and he ushered her inside.

"I think I met her yesterday," Rinoa told him, standing in the corner. "She showed me where Caraway's room was because she was on her way to this side of the hospital to see one of her patients. I think she said he was getting an MRI? I only know what she did here at the hospital because I asked if she had heard anything about my father and she said that she didn't know about the patients on this side since it wasn't her department." Rinoa smiled at Squall and watched as he firmly pressed his thumb onto the 'doors close' button. "She seems really nice."

"She is," Squall concurred.

"You had told me that you had an older sister who raised you…but how old is she? She doesn't seem like someone who was old enough to raise a twelve year old."

Squall thought for a moment. "She looks younger than she really is. She gets that a lot. She just turned thirty-seven in January."

"Well, she is _lovely._ I hope I look half as good as her when I'm in my thirties. I should be so lucky—"

Squall turned his head and grinned at the sight of Rinoa going on about Ellone. She was in complete awe with the other woman and she only shared an elevator ride with her. Apparently Ellone had that effect on people. "Hey, Rinoa."

She paused and looked over to him. "Hmm?"

Squall leaned in and pressed his lips against hers.

The kiss was so light and sweet at first, as if he only planned to give her a quick peck and then pull away. But then he gently ran his tongue over her bottom lip, causing her to shudder and feel as if the ground beneath suddenly dropped.

Squall pulled away. The ground hadn't dropped, instead the elevator stopped at the third floor and the doors slid open to grant entrance to an elderly couple carrying flowers and a blue fluffy teddy bear. The couple smiled at Rinoa and then turned to Squall, who held his hand over the designated floor buttons. "Which floor?" he asked them.

"Fourth, please," said the older man.

"Thank you." The older woman looked over to Rinoa and gave her a kind smile.

Rinoa was wondering if the woman could see the flush that was creeping around the apples of her cheeks, could hear the maddening race of her heartbeat.

As they arrived at the fourth floor and the elderly couple stepped off, Squall turned back to Rinoa once the doors were safely closed. This time Rinoa was prepared and she lifted a hand to cup Squall's chin as he brought his lips down to hers.

This kiss was short and brief, but it still left Rinoa breathless with a thundering heart. She locked eyes with him when he pulled away and bit down into her lower lip as she watched him run his fingers over his pulled back hair.

"I've been wanting to do that since yesterday," he confessed.

Rinoa smiled fully and glanced upward at the glowing number five that announced they had reached their level.

"I need to head back," Squall said, taking a quick glance at his watch. "My next appointment should be arriving soon."

"Sure." Rinoa stepped forward and then firmly grasped his crotch through the material of the scrubs he wore. Completely ignoring the look of astonishment on his face, she casually breezed past him as the elevator doors opened. She exited and stepped aside to allow a small group of technicians enter the elevator. Rinoa looked over her shoulder and smirked as she watched Squall shake his head at her. His eyes flared with unsung desire and his jaw was tightly set.

_Watch it,_ he mouthed to her.

She smiled at him as innocently as she could and turned away. _And I've been wanting to do __**that**__ since Saturday._

* * *

A few hours later Squall was walking towards the parking lot. He had just clocked out after his twelve hour shift and was looking forward to relaxing. Then his phone beeped within his pocket and he knew his quiet night had been altered.

_Q.T: Is Rinoa still at the hospital?_

Squall read over the text and sighed. He turned around and walked back to the visitor's information desk. He nodded to the receptionist and asked for the visitor's log. "Seeing if my friend had checked out yet," he explained.

He flipped back a page to find where Rinoa had signed herself in at ten-fifteen. When he saw that she had not yet signed herself out, he handed the log back. "Thanks," he said, turning away to respond to Quistis.

_S.L: Just looked at the visitor's log. She's still here._

_Q.T: Tell her we're going to Club Shiva._

_S.L: Since when?_

_Q.T: Since like an hour ago. We're going out celebrating. _

Squall scowled but headed back towards the elevator.

As if knowing his reaction, Quistis texted him again.

_Q.T: Don't be a dick._

* * *

Squall knocked on the door and gave a brief nod to the nurse, Artemis when she swung it open.

"Why, hello Mr. Leonhart!" she said brightly. "Rinoa was telling me that you two were friends." Artemis leaned in and gave Squall a teasing grin. "Have you come to see her off? How knightly of you."

Squall smirked at Artemis's comment. The nurse was a few years older than Ellone, yet the youthful glow within her sparkling gray eyes and wide smile made her look as if she were still in her early thirties. He had crossed paths with her countless time thanks to Ellone, who quickly became friends with the older woman when she had started her residency many years before. "You know me," he said quietly.

"That I do, kiddo," she said, ruffling his hair now that it was out of the ponytail. She glanced behind her and saw that Rinoa had just stepped into the bathroom. "That is a fine girl you have for a daughter there, General Caraway," Artemis commented with a beaming smile as she approached Caraway's bed to collect any trash.

"That she is," he agreed. "She is quite a gem."

Artemis nudged Caraway's bicep with her elbow. "I suspect she gets that from her mother," she quipped, sending the General a wink.

Caraway chuckled and gently swatted away Artemis's elbow. "I will be honest," he said. "I think her most unflattering traits she inherited from me."

Rinoa stepped out of the bathroom and narrowed her eyes suspiciously as the room fell silent to her entrance. "You talking shit?" she demanded of her father, earning a short and throaty laugh from him. She turned her head and stopped dead in her tracks when she saw Squall standing there in his typical uniform of dark jeans and fitted white t-shirt. "Hi!" she said. "Are you off for the day?" She glanced at the clock that hung on the wall and saw that it was already close to eight. "Is it that late already?" she gasped.

"We're all going out tonight," he told her.

"Oh, we are?" Rinoa smirked. "Where are we all going?"

"Club Shiva."

Rinoa's brows rose and she excitedly clapped her hands. "I haven't been there in ages! What's the occasion?" Then her jaw dropped as she remembered that he had had a meeting with a producer the night before. "Ohmygod—good news?"

Squall only offered a grin. "We'll tell you at the club."

Rinoa scooped up her purse and waved her fingers at Caraway and Artemis. "I'll be back tomorrow," she told them.

"I'm hoping to be discharged tomorrow," Carway said to her. "If you wanted to show up around two because I will be needing a lift home."

Artemis let out a laugh and patted Caraway on the shoulder. "Don't get too carried away with that hope, General," she said. "It all depends on your tests tomorrow morning." She looked over to Rinoa and sent her a kind smile. "I'll be sure to call you tomorrow and let you know what's going on and if you'll be coming in for a visit or a pick up." Her eyes darted over to where Squall waited in the doorway. "I'll call you in the afternoon, give you some time to…sleep in." She said the last part with a suggestive raise of her eyebrow and her grin widened when she saw a faint blush creep to Rinoa's cheeks.

Caraway gave Artemis a jab to the side with his elbow. "Ignore her," he told Rinoa. "Have a good time."

While Rinoa followed Squall out of the room, Artemis turned to Caraway and gave him a smirk. "Well, well…" she murmured, her full lips curved into a conniving smirk. "It seems your little princess has snagged herself a knight."

Caraway chuckled and softly shook his head. "It appears so," he agreed.

* * *

When Rinoa opened the door she beamed when she saw Selphie standing on the other side. "Hello my love!" she giggled, throwing her arms around the other girl. "You look cute!"

Selphie spun around in the yellow skater dress she wore, the skirt rising around her hips like flower petals. "Thanks!" She took a look at Rinoa's backless halter and gave her a suggestive whistle. "Well look at you! Show off that ink girl!"

Rinoa laughed and slipped on some simple black flats. "I'm glad Club Shiva doesn't have one of those insane dress codes," she said, patting down the black and white horizontally striped skirt she wore that flared out over the tops of her thighs. Her skirt wasn't super short, but she wore little black shorts beneath it because she knew she'd be spinning around like a mad woman.

"Oh, I know," Selphie agreed, pointing to the gladiator sandals laced upon her feet. "I like wearing heels but I can't really _dance_ in them. If I see that a club has a dress code demanding that women be in heels I won't go." She turned and walked out the door with Rinoa behind her.

"Exactly," Rinoa said, locking the door behind them.

"Now, _Quistis_, on the other hand can dance in heels," Selphie said. "I've seen her shuffle, twirl, jump rope, even play limbo in six inch heels." She glanced behind her and nodded at the shocked face that Rinoa was giving her. "Yeah. I know right?"

* * *

When they arrived at Club Shiva the band had already posted up in a reserved booth in the corner. Quistis was already on the floor, dancing by herself even though she was surrounded by many men who stared at her adoringly. She was in her own element, her arms high above her head and liquidly moving around her body as she let the music wrap itself around her. Just like Selphie had predicted, the blonde wore tall and impossibly skinny heels yet maneuvered through each step effortlessly.

Rinoa stared in awe at the woman on the dance floor. The simple black romper with pink leopard spots clung to Quistis's curves, accentuating the slope of her waist and the long stems of her legs. "Good lord," Rinoa managed to whisper. She turned to Selphie and just panted. "She is too perfect for words."

"She is our goddess," Irvine said with a snigger, taking Selphie's hand and pulling her into a tight embrace.

Zell laughed and ordered a round of drinks. "Definitely. I'm just glad she's got a modest head upon those porcelain shoulders. If she was a total diva we might have killed her by now."

"That's why I love Quistis," Selphie said. "She's knows she's attractive but she doesn't act on it. She focuses more on her actual talent than her obscenely pretty face." She smiled when a server brought a silver plate adorned with their shots. "She's real."

Squall took hold of a glass with one hand and handed Rinoa her own with his other. "She's alright," he said with a sharp grin. He looked over at the woman in question and beckoned her to come over.

Quistis gave Rinoa a strong hug around the shoulders before taking a glass. "How's your dad?" she asked.

"Doing well, thankfully," she answered. "So then…what are we celebrating?" she demanded, holding her drink at the ready. "Asshole here wouldn't tell me!"

Zell roared with laughter and pounded his knuckles onto the table. "We're going on tour!" he shouted.

Rinoa's jaw dropped and she immediately smacked Squall's arm with the back of her hand. "You shithead!" she screamed. "Why didn't you tell me? Ohmygod…_ohmygod!_"

They rose their shot glasses in the air and hollered, "To Absolute Lore!" before throwing back their heads and emptying their shots. Rinoa slammed her empty glass onto the table and clapped her hands. She wanted to know more. She wanted details about the meeting with the producer, the tour length, who they were touring with…she wanted to know everything! But before she could get a word out Irvine immediately grabbed Selphie by the hand and pulled her onto the dance floor. Quistis then did the same to Zell, leaving Rinoa alone with Squall at the booth.

Taking advantage of the situation, Rinoa leaned her elbow on the table and batted her eyes at Squall. "So…tell me!" she demanded. "I want to know _everything!_"

Squall only laughed and ran his fingers through his hair. "Not going to lie, I was very hesitant at first," he admitted. "We're going to be touring with this band we've played with before and one of the bands touring with them had to back out, so they sent their producer to come 'fetch' us since we have great chemistry with them."

Rinoa giggled and bounced in her seat with giddiness. "How exciting! Is it going to pay well?"

"Eh…" He shrugged and held his palms upwards. "We're kind of taking a risk but…there was another tour Cid was trying to get us on that wouldn't start for a few months so the budget we had for _that_ tour got moved up early. Luckily, since we've played with Djin Theory before a lot of their fans know and like us. So…we're hopeful."

Rinoa exhaled a breath and just glanced around, completely in awe of the situation happening. "Wow…that is…I can't even put it into words!" Then she turned back to him. "When are you leaving since the tour is happening right now?"

She immediately noticed the way his jaw clenched and his eyes drifted over the crowd on the dance floor.

"Soon," he replied, not looking at her.

Not entirely sure how to take that response, Rinoa slowly leaned in and prodded Squall's chest. "Dance with me?"

Unable to smother the smirk that spread across his lips, Squall only shook his head as he turned his face toward her. He tried not to laugh at the pretty little pout she then gave him. "I don't dance," he told her.

Rinoa rolled her eyes and tossed her hair over her shoulder. "Oh give me a break," she muttered. "You're a _drummer._ You have to have painstakingly precise rhythm throughout your whole body—you do dance." Before he could tell her no once again, she shot out a hand and firmly grasped his wrist.

As she pulled him onto the dance floor the song changed. Squall had heard the song before due to its constant playing on the radio in the break room of his wing, but it was usually white noise, something soft in the background that was easily ignored. Now that it was blaring from the speakers surrounding them, he was able to catch the lyrics and couldn't help but press his lips together in thought.

_We were victims of the night/The chemical, physical, kryptonite/Helpless to the bass and the fading light/Oh we were bound to get together/Bound to get together._

He laughed as she threw her arms around his neck and swayed her hips. His movements were awkward and shy at first, unsure of where to put his hands or how much space should be between them.

Inwardly he was kicking himself. _You fucked her with your fingers barely even two nights ago, and __**now**__ you're being shy?_ He glanced over her head and saw Irvine and Selphie in a tight clutch before the cowboy turned Selphie around rocked her hips against him.

_She took my arm/I don't know how it happened/We took the floor and she said/_

Squall spun Rinoa around, his eyes completely unable to waver from her. He watched how her hair glistened beneath the overhead strobing lights, how the lights bounced off her skin and reflected little circles of red and blue across her complexion.

_"__Oh don't you dare look back/Just keep your eyes on me."/I said, "You're holding back."/She said, "Shut up and dance with me!"_

He circled Rinoa back so she aligned firmly against his chest. She sent him a smile that speared warmth throughout his body and he clasped her hand into his while his other settled onto her waist. Following his lead, she placed her other hand upon his shoulder and together they danced in a very fast-paced version of a waltz.

_This woman is my destiny/She said, "Ooh ooh hoo/Shut up and dance with me."_

Rinoa laughed and was allowed to detach herself from Squall. With his fingers still clasped with hers, he twirled her around so that her skirt flirted up, billowing around her thighs like a Tim Burton umbrella.

_A backless dress and some beat up sneaks/My discotheque, Juliet teenage dream/I felt it in my chest as she looked at me/I knew we were bound to be together/Bound to be together._

Zell cut in and snaked Rinoa away, sticking out his tongue at Squall as he had Rinoa in his arms. Rinoa couldn't stop laughing and draped her arm around Zell's shoulders so he could spin her around the dance floor with moves mimicking a dramatic ice skater.

_She took my arm/I don't know how it happened/We took the floor and she said…_

_"__Oh don't you dare look back/Just keep your eyes on me."/ I said, "You're holding back."/She said, "Shut up and dance with me!"_

Squall only shook his head at the sight and then grinned when Quistis came up to him, bumping his hip with her own. Now that she was in high heels, she matched his height at just barely six foot. She grabbed his hands and forced him into a quick little waltz around the dance floor while Zell held Rinoa hostage.

Zell dipped low and hooked an arm beneath the bend of Rinoa's knees and lifted her in the air, earning a sharp squeal from her as he spun around in fast circles. After he had his amusement, he set her back onto her feet and graciously bowed his head to her. "That ought to rile him up," he said to her, giving her a wink.

Rinoa playfully shoved at his shoulder. "Thanks," she said. When she turned around Squall was suddenly before her, an arm encircling her waist and pulling her up tight against him. Her hand fell into his and together they moved to the beat.

_Deep in her eyes/I think I see the future/I realize this is my last chance..._

Rinoa watched as his lips parted as if he were going to say something, but instead his mouth clamped shut. Then the song changed and his gaze moved behind her. His eyes flashed with amusement and his mouth curved into a smirk. Rinoa turned in his arms and gasped.

She raised her hands to cup her cheeks as she watched Zell and Quistis practically own the dance floor. While the pumping and pulsating beat of Sean Paul's _Temperature_ blasted throughout the dance floor, Zell and Quistis recreated an impressive version of the tango.

Quistis easily maneuvered the tricky steps despite the skinny heels she wore upon her feet. Rinoa's eyes widened as she watched Zell's feet intricately weave through Quistis's legs, and vice versa, and the sensual sways and dips of hips.

Despite the tango being such an intimate and erotic dance, the dancing pair laughed and snickered, making the movements appear platonic and methodical. Zell turned Quistis around and gripped her by the hips, lifting her into the air and slowly spinning around. Her arms spread out to either side and she dipped her head back, her ponytail draping over Zell's spikes.

The crowd that gathered around them laughed and cheered, completely in awe of their movements. Zell dropped Quistis down into his arms, sending her a wink as she slithered around his body so her leg extended onto the floor.

After a theatric backflip that earned a few gasps from the crowd, Zell held out his hand and Quistis leapt into him, instantly and easily then lifted into the air as if she weighed nothing. The song ended and even the DJ gave them a shoutout before starting the next song.

"Alright, let's hear it for our two dancing machines—Zell Dincht and Quistis Trepe from Absolute Lore—who are gracing us with their presence tonight!"

Zell lowered Quistis to her feet and they clasped hands as they took their theatric bows. Zell lifted his head and practically roared with laughter as he blew kisses into the crowd. "Thank you, thank you!" he bellowed over the cheering.

"Where did you learn to dance like that?" Rinoa gasped as the four of them veered back to the booth for a breather.

Zell laughed and took a long swallow from his beer. "Ma insisted on dance lessons," he said. "I gotta say, it definitely helped with my boxing!" He gave a few quick jabs in the air while his feet danced around Rinoa. "All that fancy footwork!"

"And I've always loved to dance," said Quistis. "Never really took 'official' lessons…I just practiced a lot in my apartment." Her lips twisted as she thought and then gave a nonchalant shrug. "My downstairs neighbors probably hate me but they've never said anything."

* * *

Squall took a sip from his drink and glanced at Irvine out of the corner of his eye. "You ok with leaving her behind?" he asked, nodding at Selphie who was giggling as Quistis twirled her around and around.

Irvine looked over to the petite brunette and his heart warmed at the sight of her smile. His lashes lowered for a moment at the thought of leaving her behind. Rather than answering, he turned to Squall and countered, "Are you?"

Squall followed Irvine's line of vision and saw that it landed on Rinoa being lifted into the air by Zell. His jaw clenched as he watched her throw her head back and laugh. Even though he was not in range, he could hear the tinkling ringing of her laughter in his mind. For a brief moment he was angry that he would not be able to bear witness to that laughter for the next few months. "Rinoa and I are not an item," he said. "It's a different situation than it is with you and Selphie."

"Sure it is, Leonhart," Irvine scoffed, throwing back his head and swallowing the remainder of his drink. He wiped his lips with the back of his hand and settled the empty glass onto the bar. "Have you told her when we're leaving?"

Squall glanced down at the ice that clinked together in his glass. "No. I told my work."

"How'd they react?"

"Surprisingly well. I'm not the only physical therapist so it's not like I'm leaving Kadowaki short-staffed."

Irvine gave a gruff laugh. "That's good. Pretty sure I got fired. But…eh." He shrugged and crossed his arms over his chest. "It's not like I'm hurting too bad for money thanks to that settlement I got from the accident at my old job."

"Yeah you'd be pretty fucked if you didn't get that."

"You're telling me!" Irvine turned his head and grinned when he saw Selphie motioning for him to come join her. "The lady calls," he said, giving Squall a salute before departing from the bar. "You better tell Rinoa!"

"Tell me what?"

Squall jerked his head around and saw Rinoa leaning against the bar, trying to get the bartender's attention. "He wears extensions," he answered quickly.

Rinoa opened her mouth and then shut it, not entirely sure how to respond. "Okie dokie," was what she came up with. She snagged the bartender over and ordered some water. "What are you drinking?" she asked, her eyes glancing at the glass in Squall's hands.

"It was supposed to be a Jack and Coke but…" He twisted his lips, unamused. "I'm pretty sure they forgot to add the Jack."

Rinoa took the glass from his fingers and took a sip, her brows furrowing when the taste touched her tongue. "It's very weak," she agreed. "I'm wondering if it was made by the same bartender that made Selphie's drink. It was supposed to be a Pina Colada but I'm pretty sure it was just a smoothie."

* * *

As Rinoa climbed into Selphie's Bug, she straightened out her skirt and strapped herself in. "Well, that's exciting!" she said. "I bet they are so pumped to be planning their tour!"

Selphie softly sighed as she smiled, inserting her key into the ignition. "Yeah," she murmured. "I'm so ecstatic for them but I know I'm going to miss Irvine _terribly._"

Rinoa gave her friend a supportive pat to the shoulder. "I bet. But…with all the technology you'll be able to talk all the time! I mean, it's not much but at least it's something, right?"

"Oh yes, absolutely. I'm just going to miss being able to roll over and cuddle with him." Selphie pouted and gave Rinoa the biggest and saddest eyes she could put on without breaking into laughter. "Tomorrow is going to be my last night sleeping in the same bed with him!"

Rinoa frowned. "Huh?"

Selphie's expression quickly snapped to concern. Her brows knitted into a frown as she stared at the blank appearance on Rinoa's face. "Didn't Squall tell you?" she asked quietly. "They're leaving the day after tomorrow."

* * *

**"Carry on Wayward Son" music and lyrics by Kansas**

**"Shut up and Dance with Me" music and lyrics by Walk the Moon**

**"Temperature" by Sean Paul**


	15. Chapter 15

**A/N: Hello readers! As always, thank you so much for the reviews and new favorites and alerts. Hope you enjoy this one... =)**

* * *

As Rinoa entered her apartment she dropped her keys noisily onto the kitchen counter. They were leaving the day after tomorrow. Her heart nearly sank. Why didn't he tell her? Why _wouldn't_ he tell her? She kicked off her shoes and placed them by the door, her fingers twirling within her hair as she thought back to his actions towards her at the hospital. "Why can't I figure you out?" she muttered.

He had kissed her so sweetly in the elevator, danced with her even though he claimed he "did not dance," held her so tightly during those dancing steps…and yet he would hardly look her in the eye when she asked when he was leaving.

His only reply was "soon" and yet he would not clarify on how exactly _soon_ it would be.

She looked at her phone and for a brief second she had half a mind to call him or at the very least text him to ask him why. Her fingers skimmed over his name and opened up a new message. But as her thumb hovered over the keyboard she could not bring herself to start typing.

"He's not mine," she whispered to herself. "He's no reason to explain his actions."

With a heavy sigh she slumped her way into the bedroom and peeled off her clothes. She dropped her phone onto her dresser and climbed beneath the covers. "I'll call him tomorrow," she promised herself. "And all I will say is congratulations on the tour…the rest is up to him."

_Asshole…_

* * *

"You're a fucking idiot. You know that, right?"

Squall glared at Zell through the smoke lifting up from the cigarette. "Fuck off," he growled, heated smoke seeping through his lips.

Zell shook his head and greedily drank from the beer bottle he had swiped from Squall's fridge. "You're pissed because you know it's true," he said. "You're pissed because it should be Rinoa here at your apartment and not me." He leaned against the railing and watched a man in his late thirties drunkenly shuffle his way into the building across from Squall's. "You're pissed because you know I'm right. You're also more pissed at yourself since you're the one who got yourself into this mess and you don't know how to fix it."

"Drop it," Squall warned.

Zell turned and gave Squall the finger. "Why?" he asked. "Why didn't you tell her? And don't give me that bullshit answer I know you're trying to form in your mind that since you two are not a couple that you didn't _have_ to. It's a fucking curtesy more than anything. Rinoa is our friend. She is now _your_ friend. Whether you two want to make something more out of it is between you, but you could have had the common decency—the fucking _balls_—to tell her that you were leaving."

When Squall didn't answer after a few moments Zell continued.

"I understand it probably isn't best to start a new relationship right before going on tour but it's still pretty fucked that you didn't even tell her." Zell polished off the rest of his beer and let out a loud and vibrating belch. He cleared his throat and patted his stomach. "You're calling her tomorrow," he said. Before Squall could utter a word, Zell held out his hand. "Nope. Don't even try to argue. You. Are. Calling. Her." Zell pulled open the slider and stepped inside. "I saw the look on her face when she was in the car with Selphie—she knows." He cocked his chin as he watched Squall glance away and gather his thoughts. "Oh yeah. She knows. And if you don't fucking call her tomorrow then you can kiss _any_ chance you have with her _goodbye_."

* * *

**The next morning...**

"Rinoa!" Artemis gasped. "I wasn't expecting to see you here so early."

"It's only eleven," Rinoa said. "It's not that early."

Artemis glanced down at the watch around her wrist and shrugged. "True…but I thought that…" she trailed off when she saw Rinoa fidget with her fingers. "Everything ok, kiddo?"

Rinoa only nodded. "Yep. I don't really have anything planned today so I thought I'd come by the hospital anyway and see how Caraway's tests are doing." Selphie had texted her a few hours prior, letting her know that she'd be with Irvine and the others to help them prepare for the tour. She mentioned that it'd be an all-day affair—packing, getting keys for each apartment so she could collect mail, contract signing, all that. Selphie had insisted that Rinoa come join her, even threw in that Rinoa could smack around Squall for being such a dick, but Rinoa declined and said that she had to go to the hospital. After that, Rinoa had received a text from Quistis inviting her to a farewell breakfast for the next morning. Rinoa had yet to respond to that one.

Her mind wandered to the phone that rested in her purse. Aside from the messages from Selphie and Quistis it had been completely silent.

It was the beginning of a new month, April had come and went so fast. Rather than feel sorry for herself and wallow in sadness due to the thought that the hot drummer did not have the decency to say goodbye to her, Rinoa moved forward. Earlier that morning she had called up Zone and they made plans to start furnishing the new studio before the week was over. Originally she had planned on "starting" at her new job once all the hard labor was conveniently over. Her sudden desire to be a part of setting up the new studio had struck a chord with Zone and he unleashed a wave of questions she had no intention of answering.

Artemis closed the door behind her and kept Rinoa in the hallway. "Sweetheart," she whispered. "Are you sure you're alright? You look upset."

Rinoa put on a smile and simply shrugged her shoulders. "It's nothing major," she assured. "I just found out my friends are leaving soon and obviously one of them couldn't be bothered to tell me."

"Ah," Artemis nodded, her hand gently squeezing Rinoa's arm. "Does this have something to do with a certain scarred brunette with resting asshole face?"

Rinoa fully laughed at the brief description. "Yeah," she said. "Technically he still hasn't told me yet. I found out from someone else."

Artemis nodded again, her eyes twinkling. "Yes, he told his sister this morning. He told the hospital and his boss yesterday while he was here but he didn't even tell his own sister until this morning—in a text, mind you."

"Why is he such an asshole?" Rinoa accidentally slipped out. Her lips clamped shut after the words tumbled out and she blushed. "I mean…manners and such…"

Artemis laughed and gave Rinoa another squeeze. "I've only known Squall personally for about a year since he started working here, but I've known his sister for nearly five, and she has said that he's always been that way. He's just not good with goodbyes." Artemis sighed and turned back towards the door. "When they were younger, he had gone through many instances of abandonment due to changes in foster families and all that…he's always hated the word 'goodbye.' I know it doesn't excuse his actions but…" She shrugged again and led Rinoa into Caraway's room.

* * *

Squall wiped at the sweat that formed over his brow. He had just finished stacking the amps into the trailer and he was gauging how much room was left.

"Is everything going to fit?" Selphie asked, peering into the back.

"It should," he answered, pulling his cigarette pack from his pocket. He glanced down at Selphie and saw that she was narrowing her eyes at him. Even though he knew perfectly well _why_ she was giving him that look, he still curled his lip into a snarl and lit his cigarette. "What?" he snapped through his teeth.

Selphie scoffed lifted her chin at him. "It's like almost three," she commented. "You've been working really hard. You should go take a break." Her words were short and choppy while she stared at him with hard and judgmental eyes. "Get some water. Take a shit. Make a phone call. You know, what have you."

Before Squall could say anything, Selphie turned on her heel and walked away.

His hand reached into his back pocket and pulled out his phone. His thumb glided over the screen until he reached Rinoa's name.

_S.L: Hey_

_R.H: Hi._

Squall winced at the little period. For some reason it looked so intimidating and vocal about her annoyance with him.

_S.L: What are you doing?_

_R.H: At the hospital. Caraway's having some tests done so I'm just hanging out._

_S.L: How's he doing?_

_R.H: Pretty well. I think that they're doing all the regular annual check-up tests since they have him here. Not sure if I'm taking him home today though. _

_S.L: Can I call you later?_

_R.H: You have my number you can call me any time._

* * *

Rinoa tucked away her phone. Squall said that he would call her later tonight and promised that he wouldn't be too late. Her eyes lifted back to the screen of her laptop. She had brought it with her so she had something to do while she waited for Caraway. In her lap was the tablet she sometimes used to edit her photos. Since she wasn't working on her computer at home, she brought her mobile devices so she could edit a few photos to put on Absolute Lore's website. Even though she was annoyed at the handsome face that looked up at her from the tablet, she still had a job to do.

With her tablet pen she drew on Squall's face. Her lips scrunched into a smothered grin as she doodled a curly moustache upon his lip, a pointed goatee, and drew over his piercing blue eyes so that they appeared cross-eyed. She added more: a tongue peeking through those lips, and even stink lines bordering his face.

Laughing at her masterpiece, Rinoa saved the image. Of course she'd never post it, but she knew she could never get rid of it.

The door opened and a tall male nurse stepped in through the threshold. He gave Rinoa a polite nod and turned back to grip the handles of the wheelchair that was behind him. The nurse wheeled Caraway into the room and helped him stand.

"How'd the tests go?" Rinoa asked, sliding the tablet back into her laptop bag.

"Very well," said the nurse. "They want to keep him for a few days only to keep an eye on the head wound."

Caraway gave a gruff laugh and made his way to the bathroom. "Apparently my body is rejecting the stitches."

"Is it an infection?" Rinoa asked.

The male nurse shook his head. "A very mild one, if that," he answered. "They've given Caraway some antibiotics to take care of it. They just want to make sure it doesn't get to a severe infection."

"Understandable," nodded Rinoa. "Though I'm sure he's not too happy about it."

"Oh, he was hoping to return to work within the next few days," said the nurse. "The doctor has not yet reached a verdict on when he can return to work. There doesn't appear to be any brain damage, so that's good. Right now it seems we're just waiting to see how the gash heals."

"Great. Thank you."

Rinoa watched as Caraway exited the bathroom and reluctantly made his way back to the bed. "Come on," she called, motioning for him to get under the covers. "Are you hungry? I'll order some lunch."

Caraway practically dropped himself onto the bed and groaned. "I'm sick of this hospital food," he muttered. He turned to Rinoa and frowned. "Pizza," he demanded. "For God's sake, give me pizza."

"What kind?" Rinoa laughed.

"The greasiest, meatiest, cheesiest one available." he said. "I want everything on it: Peppers, sausage, onions, pepperoni, olives, bacon, mushrooms…"

"Alright! I get it!" Rinoa shouted as she reached for her phone.

* * *

"Shit! Is it that late already?"

Zell's comment caused Squall to hurriedly look at his phone. "Fuck!"

Such an outburst from him was so uncommon that even Zell jumped at the noise. Everyone stilled as they watched Squall lift from his seat and exit through the slider door. He firmly shut it behind him and brought the phone to his ear.

Quistis let out a low whistle and looked over to Selphie who was nodding smugly. "It's about damn time," she said.

"I hope she doesn't go _too_ easy on him," replied Selphie.

Squall lowered himself down into the patio chair and waited impatiently. When had it gotten so late? The trailer was packed with their instruments and gear and cables. The black van they would be driving across the country was filled with their clothes and blankets and snack food. He had already spoken with Ellone and stopped at her place to hand her his spare keys to his apartment. She gave him a quick hug and promised she'd keep an eye on his place and pick up his mail. The contracts were signed and notarized, Cid and Edea had filtered through the budgets and made it work. It'd be a tight stretch, but it was doable.

Between the packing, paperwork, grabbing quick bites to eat, it had somehow managed to become eleven-o-five when Squall was finally able to sit down in peace.

He pulled a cigarette to his lips and nearly bit down into it when she answered.

"Hello?"

"Hey—sorry, I didn't realize it was so late already."

"It's fine," she said. "I'm sure you were doing something important."

Rinoa wasn't sure if she should go into full bitch mode or remain calm and casual. She glanced at the numbers at the bottom of her computer screen. "I was just editing some photos from your show on Saturday."

"Oh yeah? How are they looking?"

"Sublime, as usual. Has Irvine modeled before? He's like, _freakishly _comfortable in front of the camera."

"I think I heard a rumor of him modeling for those underwear ads," Squall shrugged. "You know, the one where they roll a sock into the front."

Before she could stop herself, Rinoa let out a sputtered laugh. _Oh how attractive, _she berated herself, wiping her mouth with the back of her hand. "Somehow I wouldn't be surprised," she said. "What's up?"

"We're leaving tomorrow," Squall told her. "For the tour."

For a fraction of a second Rinoa felt a small twinge within her heart at the words. "Yes, I heard!" she said eagerly, her smile tight as she forced it to remain on her face. "Congratulations. I bet you guys are beyond excited—you're making it happen!"

Squall softly laughed and rested his cheek against his fist. "Yeah…it's a bit surreal."

Rinoa smiled and coiled a strand of hair around her finger. She was so happy for them, so excited, so _proud._ She had only just met them all but she felt such a strong connection with them—Squall mostly. Another small twinge made her wince. She was still upset that he hadn't told her…but she didn't want to ruin the moment. She quickly brushed it aside and put on her happy voice. "I'm so happy for you, Squall," she murmured. "I wish you guys the best of luck and I'll see you when you get back." She clamped her lips together and swallowed. There. She said it. She made it sound so final, so short and terse. She made it sound as if it hadn't bothered her in the least when obviously it really, _really_, bothered her.

Squall's fingers clenched around the phone at the formality of her words. _Don't do this,_ he thought. _She's saying goodbye, don't make it worse._ _You fucked it up._ "I…want to see you," he said. Instantly he closed his eyes tightly.

"Really?"

His eyes opened and he felt a tingling surge of warmth race up his spine at the sudden upbeat tone in her response. Did she think he was just going to leave without so much as a goodbye? _Of course she did,_ he told himself. _Because that's what you were __**trying**__ to do. _"Yes," he said despite his inner turmoil with himself. "I'm leaving Irvine's right now, everything's packed up and ready to go. All I have left to do is—" _You. _"—to see you."

Her heart fluttered at the thought. "Ok, what'd you want to do? Did you want to get something to eat or…?" She glanced over to her clock and winced. It was just barely eleven, practically everything would be closed.

"I'm not really hungry—" _For food, anyway. _"—How about I pick up a six pack and you and I can go for a drive?"

"Sounds good. Anywhere in particular?"

"Not really…" He started to stand when a thought hit him. "I do know this one place. You can really see the stars."

Rinoa pressed her lips together. So, he liked to stargaze? "Ok," she agreed. "That sounds perfect. I'll see you in a few?"

"Yeah, it won't take me too long to pick up the beer and come get you. We should get to the point just after midnight, if that's not too late for you."

Nothing was considered too late if it meant she got to see him. "Not at all," she laughed. "What time are you guys leaving?"

"Eleven-thirty," he answered

"Should you be staying out so late? I mean, Quistis invited me to breakfast with you guys right before you take off…so if you wanted to call it an early night I totally understand—"

"I want to see you," he said again quickly, his jaw clenching at how the words had rushed out of him. "I mean…breakfast too. With all of us together." He felt his ears burning as he spoke. "But…I want to spend time with just you before then."

Rinoa softly brushed her lips at his clumsy admission. "Ok," she said. "You'll see me."

"Great."

"I'll see you soon. I'll leave the door unlocked so just walk in." They hung up and she tossed her phone onto her bed. "Just after midnight, huh?" she murmured to herself, her lips turning into a lustful smirk. "Nothing good comes after midnight." She quickly stripped herself from her clothes and rummaged through her closet.

* * *

Squall knocked and gently pushed open the door. "Rinoa? It's Squall."

"Alright," Rinoa called. "I'm coming I'm coming!" She emerged from the hallway, swiping at the stray hairs that decided to be stubborn and stick to her cheek.

"We're in no rush—" Squall began, his words turning into a throaty grunt when he turned and looked at her. She was in a simple black sundress that flared out over her hips and a light blue bolero cardigan. So simple, so minimal and yet she looked so put together and stunning. He watched her slip on the white flip flops she'd had posted by the front door.

She caught him staring and bashfully tucked a strand of black hair behind her ear. "Like my dress?" she asked.

All he could do was smile while she shyly stood before him. She looked like a present, perfectly swathed in soft ribbons of cotton, waiting, _begging_, to be unwrapped. "Yes," he responded breathlessly. "Yes, I do."

Her smile grew wider and she took a step closer to him, her fingers gingerly stroking over the top of his hand. "Good," she said. "Are you hungry? Did you want to get something to eat before we go? I think I may have some snacks…"

His arm came around her and he started to lean in.

"Nope." Rinoa placed her palm against his lips and held her ground.

He paused, his eyes searching the blank slate she displayed as her face. He could only blink and stare when she stepped out of his embrace and crossed her arms over her chest and steadily kept his gaze.

"Before _anything_ happens tonight," she said, her brow arching as she spoke. "When were you planning on telling me that you were leaving tomorrow? Because honestly, that's a pretty shitty thing to do. I thought we were friends."

"Friends," he repeated. Slowly he tilted his head to the side and couldn't help but smirk. "Is that what we are?"

Rinoa pursed her lips as she resisted the urge to shove at his shoulder. _Friends who make out and put their hands down each other's pants, _she thought. "I'll be honest with you," she told him. "I'm not ready to talk about what we are or what we may be or could be, not tonight, not when you're leaving in…" She looked over to the glowing numbers of her microwave. "…in less than twelve hours. But what I _will_ say? Is that tonight is what I have with you and it is going to have to hold me over until the next time we meet."

The silence that formed between them was surprisingly comfortable. Despite the strong and solid face that Rinoa was displaying, with each passing second Squall was able to see the cracks in the walls she tried putting up. Slowly he reached for her hand and softly smiled when she let him take it.

"I feel the same," he said. "I'm sorry, I know I should have told you. I've been hearing lectures all day about my conducts involving women. I'm not good with goodbyes…"

"You keep saying 'goodbye' as if you'll never see me again. The tour is only going on for a few more months. You really have no excuse for not telling me." She squeezed his hand and traced her fingers over the veins of his wrist. She twisted her lips and glanced away. "I mean...were you just planning on just disappearing without even letting me know?"

Squall swallowed and felt his heart wrench at the pain within Rinoa's eyes. "I wasn't trying to hurt you," he promised. "I just...I didn't want to say goodbye to you."

"Again, you keep saying 'goodbye' like it's going to be forever." Rinoa sighed and looked him directly in the eye. "I'm not going anywhere. I'll be here when you get back. If I'm not it's only because I'm most likely working a destination shoot. This isn't 'goodbye' for me, Squall, this is more of a 'see you later.' You'll be back soon."

Squall sighed and gently caressed his thumb over the ridges of her knuckles. "I know," he murmured. "I'm not entirely sure what is going on with us other than I really enjoy your company. If you'd like, we can discuss this more when I get back."

"I'd like that," she said, curling her fingers around his.

He leaned in again to kiss her forehead and she quickly pinched his stomach.

"You're still a dick," she muttered.

"Yeah, I know."

* * *

It truly was a beautiful night. The sky was so clear and black that the stars shone like diamonds. The drive was calm and serene. Squall had taken the top down from his Jeep and they both enjoyed the night breeze filtering through the car. The roads were practically empty as if they were meant only for Squall and Rinoa's use.

Squall had driven them down past the main road of the beach and into near seclusion. It wasn't quite a cliffside, but it was an isolated ledge that was known only to a few people. He was glad that no one else was around. Normally teenagers would search for areas like this on the weekends to drink. He supposed that was the perk of driving around with Rinoa on a weekday, hardly anyone would be out.

"It's beautiful up here," Rinoa said, her eyes wistfully staring out into the night sky and its glittering stars. "The stars are so bright up…you can actually see them."

"Yeah," he murmured, reaching behind Rinoa's seat and grabbing two bottles. He popped off the top of one and handed it to her. She waited until he removed his own cap and they softly clinked the bottles together.

"Here's to your tour," Rinoa said, slowly sipping as she trained her eyes back towards the sky.

Squall swallowed a few gulps and set the bottle down. "Yeah." He wiped his mouth with the back of his hand and stared out in front of him. The ledge didn't offer much of a view during the night, but he could see the nearly full moon reflecting off of the surface of the ocean, ribbons of pearl shimmying across inky black.

"You need to shut the fuck up, seriously," Rinoa retorted.

He looked over at her in shock at the sudden hostility in her voice, but when he saw that she was struggling to hold in a laugh, he smiled fully. "Sorry," he told her. "Just a lot on my mind." He continued to drink his beer.

"I bet," Rinoa agreed, her fingernails lightly dancing over the glass.

"I used to come out here a lot," Squall was saying, his eyes gazing upwards. "Especially after I had joined SEED and had free time off of the base. It's always been a place for me to go to when I just wanted to clear my head, relax, and just think."

Rinoa smiled as she listened to him talk. Even though he had already told her, she still couldn't believe that he had been part of the Balamb faction of SEED. She had heard about the prestigious military school from her father even while she was in high school, but she had never come across a student before until she had met Squall.

"What are you thinking about now?" she asked.

"Truth?" he asked, looking at her from the corner of his eye.

She exhaled a soft laugh and leaned against the headrest. "Truth," she said.

Squall poured out the remaining foam from his bottle and stuck it back into the empty slot of the cardboard carrier. He looked over to Rinoa, who was already biting her bottom lip in anticipation. He reached for her, his fingertips lightly grazing over the thin flesh of her wrist.

She leaned over the center console and pressed her lips against his. Instantly a tiny moan rose from her at the plush contact. Suddenly it was as if that small, barely audible noise had ignited the tension that had been building between them. Squall was pulling at her and she was climbing over the console to straddle him.

The hem of her sundress rode high over her thighs, just now barely covering the junction between those long legs of hers. Her thighs clenched, holding his legs hostage beneath her. His tongue plunged between her lips, desperately seeking dominance. While the kiss deepened his hand fumbled down the side of his seat and worked the lever to lay the seat flat. With the extra weight pressed against it, the seat fell backward faster than they both had anticipated.

Rinoa let out a gasp as she suddenly found herself practically laying on top of Squall, though of course she didn't mind. They both chuckled for a moment, her fingers finding their way to thread through his hair while his fingers possessively pressed into her hips.

Her heart thundered in anticipation and she sucked on his bottom lip. His arms clenched around her waist and held her so tightly against him. A small grunt escaped through his mouth as she rolled her hips into his. Waves of desire trembled between them, their breaths low and shaky as they pulled apart.

Squall lifted his fingers to his mouth, his tongue darting out to wet the digits. Rinoa leaned in and licked up the length of his two fingers. He groaned and removed his hand, greedily taking her mouth. His hand slipped beneath the hem of her dress and searched for her panties. He stilled, his eyes widening when his fingers found nothing but warm, bare skin. "Did you not wear any panties tonight?" he asked, his voice turning husky.

Rinoa licked her lips and shook her head. "I thought they'd get in the way," she answered, just barely over a whisper.

His breath came faster at her admittance and with his free hand he clutched her even closer to him, his wet fingers gliding over her slick folds. She released a sharp moan, her body tensing as his fingers stroked and played.

Shakily her hands reached for his belt. She released the buckle and worked the zipper. With his hand still beneath her dress he lifted his hips so she could shimmy his pants and boxers down to mid-thigh. Despite the awkward position and cramped space they managed not to break their kiss for too long. Rinoa lowered herself back down, her heart thundering as her bare thighs were now in contact with his, flesh on flesh rather than flesh on jeans. He felt so warm, so deliciously heated.

Now that she was closer and not hovering over him, he sank his fingers into her. Her mouth dropped open as she cried out, panting and breathing into him. He caught her plump bottom lip between his teeth and pumped his fingers into her, his other arm a strong circlet around her waist. "Fuck," he groaned into her mouth. "You are so wet."

All Rinoa could do was nod, her eyes screwing tightly as waves of electricity shot through her body with every direct thrust of his hand. With each pump his knuckles teasingly kissed the tender bud of nerves between her legs. Her hand reached between them and she clutched his length. A soft moan came from her when she discovered how hard he was. With her previous experiences, she found that she still had to work them a little before the act finally came into play. But Squall was _ready._ He was thick and long and ready for _her._ She squeezed him and ran her thumb over the sensitive tip, a smug grin playing across her lips when he threw his head back and grunted. She watched the cords of his throat pulse and tighten as he lay back and enjoyed the feel of her hand stroking up and down his length. She leaned forward a bit and traced his throat with the sharp tip of her tongue.

"Fuck," he panted. He lifted his head and thrust his tongue into her mouth. "Condom," he said between kisses.

"Where?" she returned, speaking around his tongue.

"Center console."

Rinoa pulled away from his kiss, straightening her spine as she lifted open the center console. She found the crisp silver packet and she began to tear it open. Squall's hand roamed over her front and squeezed her breast. He smiled when he noticed she was having trouble with the packet. Gently he took it from her and quickly had the condom out and rolled over his shaft.

With his hands beneath her dress and gripping her bare hips, he locked eyes with her as she lowered herself onto him. His heart pounded madly as he listened to the sharp gasp that escaped from her pink lips, watched as the hollow of her throat deepened as her breathing changed. He shifted, sat up a little and placed sweet kisses along her collarbone as he waited for her body to adjust to him.

She whimpered, her teeth nibbling at her bottom lip as she took him further and further into her. Her fingers clutched at the front of his shirt.

His hand cupped the base of her skull and he nipped at her neck. "Are you ok?" he asked between bites. She couldn't answer with words, only nodded and tried to move her hips. Squall took her chin between his fingers and pulled her mouth to his. "Just go slow," he whispered to her.

Rinoa sighed into him, her body slowly loosening and attuning to his size. Her tongue poked out and ran over her teeth as she slowly began to move. With each roll of her hips a white hot shock ran through her nerves. She slanted her mouth over his and sucked on his lip.

Squall reached behind her and tore at her cardigan, tossing it somewhere into the backseat. Reluctantly he pulled away from that tantalizing mouth of hers, his lips planting burning kisses along her collarbone. He pinched the skinny strap of her dress between his teeth and pulled it down the slope of her shoulder. His tongue traced over the tops of her breasts.

Together they rocked and moaned into each other. Rinoa's arms surrounded the back of his head and clutched him to her. His hand snaked between their bodies and pulled at the neckline of her dress, pulling it downward to expose her breast. Rinoa cried out when his lips closed over her nipple.

"Oh fuck!" She clamped a palm over her mouth as he suckled. Her sensations went haywire and she rocked her hips harder. She clawed at the back of his shirt and Squall pulled away so he could yank the damn article over his head. Rinoa was slightly disappointed when she saw that he wore a tight black undershirt beneath it, but her mouth watered when she saw that the undershirt exposed his toned and muscular arms. Her fingers ran over his chest, pausing just over his right nipple. Beneath the ribbed fabric she felt the hard metal hoop.

Squall yanked her against his chest, his hips thrusting upward into her. His mouth closed over hers and silenced the guttural and nearly animalistic moans that erupted between them. He came with a deep growl and bit down onto the sensitive part where her neck met her shoulder.

Rinoa wilted against him, her breasts rising and falling from the heavy breathing. She tilted her head backwards as she tried to catch her breath. The stars seemed to glow even brighter, the waxing moon was a stark white globe against the inky sky. Squall lifted his head, his eyes following Rinoa's lead and staring off into the inky black sky that loomed over them.

"Beautiful," he murmured.

"It is, isn't it?" she panted. "Oh!"

A fiery streak blazed across the sky, so quick and so lightning fast that it very easily could have been missed. Rinoa looked down with wide and excited eyes. "Did you see it?" she whispered.

Squall was smiling up at her. "Yeah. Did you make a wish?"

Her expression immediately changed to worried. "No…is it too late now?"

"Nah. Make a wish."

Rinoa had no idea what the wish for. She looked back up to the sky. _I wish…um, I wish…_ She looked back down at Squall who was still staring at the stars. Rinoa lightly tapped him on the nose and giggled when he flinched, his eyes searching for hers and then grinning. _I wish for your wish to come true, Squall. _She couldn't think of anything else.

"Did you make a wish?" he asked.

"Yep. Did you?"

He shrugged. "Yeah. It was pretty generic though."

"Sometimes those are the best kind."

She shivered and Squall reached behind them to pick up his discarded shirt. "Here," he said, offering it to her.

"Won't you be cold?"

"Nah," he shrugged. "I'd rather you be warm."

Rinoa shyly smiled and pulled the shirt over her head. "Thanks."

Squall leaned back to allow her more room to adjust herself. As she held herself up above him, he reached down and pulled up his pants and buckled his belt. She balanced her palms against the door of the car and his shoulder as she twisted her legs between them and maneuvered herself so she was laying with her back against his chest. Once she made herself comfortable, his right arm laced around her middle and his cheek brushed against the side of her face. He reached into the side panel of the door and brought up his cigarettes. "Did you want to head back?" he asked her.

Rinoa tilted her head to the side, her eyes gazing skyward as she listened to his movements. The way his voice muffled around the cigarette, the sharp click of the lighter, and the sizzling hiss of the flame meeting paper…she wanted to memorize it all. "Nah," she said. "I mean, if you wanted to, it's ok, I know you have an early day tomorrow."

She felt the soft shake of his head. "That's what coffee is for," he told her. "I'd rather be here with you than sleeping in my bed."

Rinoa turned her head so that her lips just barely brushed his nose. "Are you saying I'm more important than sleep?"

He responded with a light chuckle and took a long hit off his cigarette. "At the moment," he said.

Rinoa inwardly squealed at the confession. She turned her gaze back to the sky and softly let out a breath. "I can't believe I saw a shooting star…" she murmured.

"You've never seen one before?"

She shook her head. "No, that was the first one I've seen with my own eyes. I've seen photographs and videos…but never one in person."

"I've seen countless," Squall said. "Most of them in this area too, since it's far from the city lights and you can actually see the stars." He finished his cigarette and tossed it out the side. "Back in Garden too," he added.

"Did you do a lot of stargazing while on base?"

"Garden had this observatory deck above the training center. It was off limits after curfew but I hardly had trouble sneaking out to it."

Rinoa scoffed. "So naughty."

Squall squeezed her and nipped at her earlobe. "I actually just wanted to see the stars," he admitted. "Since Garden is co-ed there had been some instances of students using the observatory deck for other purposes…but I was never part of _that._"

"Sure you weren't."

"I'm serious. Girls never approached me." His lips curved into a smirk. "They always complained that I was an asshole."

Rinoa let out a breathy laugh. "I just can't _imagine_ why!" Her eyes scanned over the stars again and she felt her heart sing when Squall nuzzled against the slope of her shoulder. "Squall?"

"Hmm?"

"When you get back from tour…can we go see the stars again?"

Squall lifted his hand and gently cupped her chin and turned her face towards him. "Any time you want," he whispered before claiming her lips.


	16. Chapter 16

Before either of them knew it, it was already four in the morning. Squall had half a mind to just say _fuck it_ and just stay up with Rinoa until it was time to hit the road after breakfast, but he knew that he had to get _some_ sleep. He turned his head and looked over to Rinoa, who still sat in his lap, and smiled as he watched her head slowly tilt downwards as sleep tried to claim her.

He knew it was time to go. It would be his last night in an actual bed for a while, he had to take advantage of it. Personally, he would rather be in a bed with Rinoa, but he knew that if he crawled beneath the covers with her he would never come back out. He would keep her hostage there, driving into her over and over again just to taste the moans upon her tongue.

He caressed the round curve of her jaw with the back of his fingers, causing her eyelids to flutter and her face to turn towards his. A sleepy moan rumbled within her throat and it was enough to quicken his heart beat. His eyes dropped down to the slow smile that formed on her lips.

"Is it time to go?" she asked through a yawn.

Reluctantly he nodded.

Hardly able to keep her eyes open, she turned away and climbed out of his lap and back into the passenger seat.

While she strapped herself in, Squall couldn't help but notice the immediate drop in temperature against his body and resisted the urge to grab her back into his clutch. The words that Irvine had venomously shot at Squall earlier that day itched within his skull: _You sure you're going to be able to handle not seeing her every day? _

Squall turned the ignition and reversed away from the ledge.

* * *

He walked her to her door and watched her unlock her apartment. She turned around and faced him, her lips pressing together almost nervously. His hand cupped the back of her neck and brought those lips up to meet his.

"Did you want to come in?" she asked softly when he pulled away.

It was tempting. So very, _very_, tempting. Vivid flashes of her sprawled across that damned panda-printed blanket with her neck arched as she screamed, her fingers tangled within his hair as he had his head between her legs, flashed through his mind. "I probably shouldn't," he sighed. "If I did then you wouldn't get any sleep and I'd never leave."

Rinoa laughed and gently ran her fingers over his chest. The threat sounded almost divine. Already she felt the need to have him again. "Even if I promised I'd kick you out of bed in time?" she teased.

Squall grinned and took her hand in his, his thumb stroking over her knuckles. "You could try," he said. He lifted his eyes so they locked with hers and his breath caught in his throat. "Besides…you'll see me at breakfast."

"True, but we'll have company and I will have to behave myself in front of them," Rinoa said quietly, her nails raking over his undershirt before gently pinching at the hoop threaded through his right nipple.

"You won't be alone in that," he countered, tugging her closer so that her breasts flattened against his chest, trapping her hand between their still burning bodies. "I'll only be gone a few months," he said, almost more so to himself rather than to her.

"Like I said, I'll be here when you get back." Rinoa wriggled her hands free and draped her arms around his neck, standing on tip toe so that her lips reached his. She meant it to be final, to be brief and sweet so that he could go back to his place and get some rest before his long drive, but the moment their lips met it sparked the still simmering desire between them and soon her tongue slipped out, running over his mouth to taste him.

With a struggled groan he pinned her against the door. He could feel his dick start to swell in preparation. _Perhaps there is time for one more round,_ he thought.

An apartment door from the building across from them slammed, jarring them alert from their thick cloud of desire. Rinoa pulled away, her fingers shyly brushing her lips as she tried not to laugh. Squall's lips were twisted in annoyance and he glanced over his shoulder to glare at the unaware intruder, a woman in a jogging suit and a high ponytail with a water bottle in hand.

"Who the fuck goes running at five in the goddamn morning?" Squall muttered through his clenched teeth.

Rinoa let out a giggle and rested her forehead against Squall's collar. "Apparently she does," she said. Reluctantly she retracted her arms from around his neck and placed a hand on the doorknob. "I'll see you at breakfast."

Squall nodded, his fingers grasping her free hand for a quick moment. "Do you mind keeping…all this…between us for now?" he asked. "I mean, not that I want to _hide_ what we've done but..."

"Not at all," Rinoa said, gently raking her nails over his palm to show she understood what he had meant. "I'd rather us figure it all out before we tell anyone else."

A small grin formed on Squall's lips and he gave her hand a swift kiss. "I just want to keep you all to myself for a while. It's not their business what you and I do." He released her hand and turned away. "Goodnight, Rinoa," he called as he descended the stairs.

"Goodnight."

Once behind closed doors, Rinoa's fingers immediately came up and rested along her clavicle, her palm over the hollow of her throat as she breathed in and out deeply. "Holy shit…" she whispered, her mind flashing back to the heated session in his Jeep. She had told him that tonight would have to hold her over until the next time they met, but now, barely even a few hours later, she could already feel her body going through withdrawals.

Her fingers walked up the slope of her neck, softly caressing her lips that were still slightly swollen from his ferocious kisses. "Only a few months," she whispered to herself. "July twenty-seventh." When they rested in the car he told her the date of their last show of the tour. It would end on a Friday in Esthar, and then after a three day drive back to Deling, he would be home.

Rinoa closed her eyes and softly chuckled to herself. "Only a few months," she repeated, opening her eyes and making her way to room. As she pushed open her bedroom door she realized she still wore his shirt…and that her cardigan was still in his backseat where he had tossed it. She peeled the shirt from her and brought it to her nose, inhaling deeply.

"Oh, fuck," she muttered, realizing how hard and fast she was falling.

* * *

Back at his apartment, Squall tossed his keys onto the kitchen center island. While his eyes were slowly closing, he reached into his pocket to yank out his phone and cigarettes. With a cigarette between his lips he made his way out to the patio, his thumb slowly scrolling over the smooth surface of his phone.

Keeping his patio lamp off, he lighted his cigarette and watched the smoke rise into the sky that had melted from that midnight black to a deep and royal blue. From how his apartment was positioned, he could not see the orange and pinks that accompanied a glorious sunrise. His brows furrowed as he noticed that the stars were hardly visible anymore.

"One of these days," he muttered to himself, the cigarette bouncing between his lips with each word. "When I'm old and retired, I'm building a cabin in the mountains…away from these damn city lights." He blew out the smoke through his teeth and watch it float up into the sky like a gauzy ribbon. He thought back to how when he lived at his last foster home—before Ellone rescued him—and how he would sneak out of his bedroom window, climb up onto the roof, and all but stare at the stars. It was the only thing that kept him sane in that house. His foster parents lived in a small house at the bottom of a canyon, away from the city and its stars-concealing lights. He had wanted to count them all, wished for a shooting star to grant his wish and take him away.

Turning away at the memory, he crushed the cigarette into the ashtray and receded back into the living room, firmly closing the slider behind him. His eyes traveled over to a small Mason jar that was adorning the end table tucked into the far corner of the living room. He picked it up with one hand and stared at it.

The first few weeks with Ellone had been rough. Ellone lived in the middle of the city because it was closer to her college, and he was unable to see his beloved stars. He was eleven then, days away from turning twelve. As Squall thought back to it he grimaced, clearly his time at his foster home had made his mind regress to a young child. For weeks he would hardly sleep, hardly eat, and constantly suffered night terrors.

Ellone, calm as ever, did what she could to ease his mind. One day, while he was out with their social worker and his therapist, she had decorated his ceiling with plastic glow and the dark stars she had purchased at the toy store. For his twelfth birthday she took him out for a drive into the desert, far from the city lights, and gave him the jar he held now in his hands. She had filled the glass jar with thick aluminum and strategically poked holes into it to create constellations.

_"__This one here is Leo,"_ she had told him, dropping in a small LED candle into the jar and tightly closing the cap so that the light glowed through the little holes. _"The Lion." _She pulled out a pair of binoculars and compass, hurriedly leafed through a library book before turning Squall around and pointing to the sky. _"That's him there,"_ she said, making him take hold of the binoculars.

_"__It doesn't look like a lion,"_ Squall had muttered, earning a soft flick to the earlobe from Ellone.

_"__It's called imagination. Leo is always in the sky, but because we are on the West, we only get to see him for a very short, brief moment before dawn. It's easier to find him on the Northern hemisphere." _She had placed a gentle hand atop his head, which back then had been much lower to her body than it was now. _"Leo is always watching," _Ellone said with a smile. _"He will always protect you."_

Even back then Squall had thought it campy, especially since Ellone herself knew next to nothing about constellations. It took him years to figure out and realize how much Ellone did for him. She knew seeing the stars would calm him down, so she checked out any books she could on the subject. It was she who taught him about constellations even though she had learned about them minutes before telling him about them.

He had never heard about the constellation Leo before, but Ellone remembered that when he was a child his favorite animal was a lion, so she did her best to combine his two favorite things—lions and stargazing.

_"__Did you know that the constellations are linked to the zodiac?" _Ellone had asked him. _"On the day that you are born, the sun passes through a specific constellation of the zodiac, which gives you a zodiac sign." _He remembered Ellone shuffling through some more papers and books before she continued. _"Now, you're special because your birthday falls on the cusp, meaning that the sun was in between two constellations." _She had looked over to Squall with large and wide eyes. _"Not only are you Leo, but you are also Virgo—the Angel." _She squinted up at the sky and pointed. _"There she is!" _Ellone had excitedly clapped her hands as she watched Squall peer through the binoculars with growing interest. _"The Lion and the Angel…both are yours, Squall."_

With a scowl he placed the Mason jar back onto the end table and twisted it so that Leo was facing the living room, just like he always did. Squall never really did ever thank her for all that she did.

He took out his phone and opened up a new message with her, knowing that she would be awake but not entirely sure if she would have access to her phone at the moment.

_S.L: I just wanted to say thanks for being such a great mom/sister._

He made his way to the bathroom and quickly brushed his teeth. As he walked towards his bed he peeled off the rest of his clothes so that he stood in only his dark red boxers and the same undershirt he had worn earlier.

He crawled into bed and as his head hit the pillow his phone beeped for his attention.

_E.L: You're going on tour—not going into a war again. Don't get sappy on me._

Squall smirked at her response. He knew she was probably narrowing her eyes at her phone's screen, trying to decipher what he was really trying to say.

_S.L: Whatever. Just saying thanks for everything you did for me._

_E.L: That's what sisters do. Now go the fuck to sleep. xoxo_

He placed the phone on the nightstand and rubbed his eyes. He paused. The scent of Rinoa still lingered on him. Crudely, he slid his fingers down the length of his face so that they rested upon his upper lip, inhaling the scent that still remained. His insides clenched as he thought about how she moved against him, how she moaned into his mouth, how he fit so snug inside of her. And then, she felt so right, so _at home_ in his lap with his arms around her waist as they stared up into the beautiful night sky.

Screwing his eyes tight, he turned over onto his side. He had taken her to the one place that was his sanctuary for so long. When he was in high school and then Garden, the desert was further than he was able to drive, so he had to find somewhere closer to home to stargaze. He never shared that place with anyone—not even Kendra…_Kendra_, whom he had introduced to Ellone.

He thought back to their conversation about figuring things out when he got back from tour. His mind raced as they repeatedly said that he would only be gone "a few months," as if it would make it easier.

His palm smacked the empty pillow beside him. "I should have stayed at her place."

* * *

The next morning Squall opened the door and narrowed his eyes at the multiple nearly purple mouth-shaped markings all around Irvine's neck. The cowboy showed some sense of dignity by having his hair down in an attempt to conceal the numerous hickies.

"Busy night?" Squall asked.

Irvine made a short chuckle within his throat but his lips twisted into a wince. "My dick hurts," he complained with a mutter.

Squall's lips rose in a repulsed scowl and he exited the apartment, locking the door behind him after he looped the beat up black backpack over his shoulder.

"My woman is insatiable," Irvine was saying. "As much as I enjoy it…it can get pretty painful after a while." As he turned to walk down the hall he adjusted his crotch almost as an afterthought. "Did you grab everything?"

"The essentials," Squall responded. "Most of my clothes are already packed into the van with all of yours and everyone else's."

Irvine walked with his hands in his back pockets as he met in stride with Squall. "How'd last night with Rinoa go?" Before Squall could reply, he added, "Did she tear you a new one for being such an asshole?" Irvine smirked at Squall's annoyed expression. "Seriously dude, dick move on your part."

"Actually, yeah," Squall admitted. "She did give me an earful." He glowered at the memory of the hurt in Rinoa's eyes. "I really wasn't trying to hurt her," he told Irvine.

"I know you weren't," Irvine said with an arm outstretched to pat Squall's shoulder. "You're just a fucking idiot is all."

"So I've heard."

Irvine was continuing despite Squall's groan of annoyance. "It just goes to show that you can bed a large number of women and yet know next to nothing about how to treat them," Irvine said with a mockingly exasperated sigh.

Squall frowned. Irvine was acting as if his own list wasn't as colorful, if not more. At least Squall could _remember_ the names of all the women he'd gotten into bed with. Before Selphie came alone, Irvine reveled in the lead singer rock star lifestyle. "So, in following your logic," Squall said. "You wouldn't even know which hole to stick it in." As Irvine stopped in his tracks and glared, Squall added, "Poor Selphie."

* * *

For breakfast they arrived at the diner where they had first met up at together. Rinoa and Selphie entered last due to Selphie having a mini-emotional breakdown in Rinoa's bathroom. By the time they had arrived breakfast and coffee had already been ordered.

"I ordered you Belgian waffles," Irvine told Selphie when she glided into the empty space beside him. "With a shit ton of strawberries and whipped cream."

"Oh!" Selphie draped her arms around his neck and covered his cheek with wet kisses.

Rinoa made a sympathetic face at the couple and sat down in the only empty chair, which was beside Zell.

"We just ordered you strawberry banana pancakes," Quistis said to Rinoa. "Since Squall said it was what you ordered the last time we were all here."

Rinoa paused. He remembered? Hell—_she_ didn't even remember what she ordered for breakfast two days ago let alone two weeks! Her insides fluttered with those damn butterflies that refused to leave her ever since she woke up that morning. It was the little things like that that truly mattered and made her almost blush at the sweet sincerity of the gesture.

Zell was reaching for his coffee when suddenly he jerked, upright his lips twisting into a smothered pained grunt. He glanced up at Quistis for a breath before instantly standing to his feet. "Squall switch places with me!" he demanded suddenly, his fists balled at his sides. "Quistis has something on her phone that she needs to show me." Awkwardly he nodded, as if he had an inner dialogue with himself that no one else was aware of and all but pushed Squall out of the chair beside Quistis.

Squall only blinked as he watched Zell lower himself into the chair, his cheeks red and lips tight. Everyone at the table was staring. Cid and Edea, at the end of the table, only sighed and then returned their attention to the map in front of them.

Squall sat beside Rinoa and gave her a look.

"Not obvious at all," she said lowly, trying not to laugh through her embarrassment.

"Not in the least," he agreed, glaring daggers at the spiky blonde across from him who was leaning forward a bit to massage his shin.

Rinoa discreetly moved her foot beneath the table, nudging it softly at the back of Squall's calf. "How'd you sleep?"

"Got a few hours in," he replied with a shrug. "You?"

"Same."

"So," said Cid from the end of the table. "Who's taking the first shift?"

Irvine raised his hand. "I'll be driving first, then Squall, then Quistis, and the Zell. We plan on taking it straight on through to Great Salt Lake since that's a little over sixteen hours away. With each of us driving four hours each we should be able to just take it straight."

"We should get to Great Salt Lake around four or five tomorrow morning," Quistis added. "We'll get some sleep, and then start over again until we reach Dollet."

"When's your first show?" Rinoa asked, stabbing her fork into the plate of pancakes the waitress brought her.

"Saturday," Zell said. "Our first tour venue is at Occult."

* * *

It was just after ten-thirty when they were brushing the crumbs from their mouths and drinking the last remnants of their coffees. Cid and Edea ushered the kids away from the table, insisting that they took care of the bill. "Make sure you go to the bathroom," Edea urged, running her long red nails through her black hair. "Who knows how clean the next bathroom on your path will be."

"Yes, Matron," Zell said, dutifully saluting her and heading towards the restrooms.

Quistis laughed and quickly grabbed hold of Rinoa, holding out her phone and demanding a picture. While the blonde displayed her signature half-smirk, Rinoa widely smiled as she tilted her head to rest against Quistis's cheek. "Ohmygod," Quistis groaned. "We are so damn cute."

"Well, one of you is," Squall said quickly as he calmly strode to the bathroom.

Quistis's jaw dropped and she scrunched his nose at Rinoa. "Apparently he's in a sour mood about _something,_" she rumbled, detaching from the raven-haired girl to also head towards the bathroom.

Minutes later they were all outside in front of the diner's entrance. Cid and Edea gave each of them hugs and soon were waved off.

"Alright," Zell said with a sigh. "I guess it's about that time then." He looked over to Rinoa and extended a hand to her. "Thanks for everything Rinoa, can't wait to see the shots from last week."

"Of course!" Rinoa ignored his hand and instead threw her arms around his neck and squeezed. "You take care," she said to him. As he detached himself from her so he could head towards the van, Rinoa turned and slid her arms around Quistis's narrow waist. "Um…I think I'll miss _you _most of all," Rinoa purred.

Quistis let out a loud laugh and stuck her tongue out at Squall. "Well obviously," she said haughtily. "I mean, who else would you possibly miss from this group of assholes?" She gave Rinoa a tight squeeze and pulled away, but not before taking Rinoa's hand and spinning her around so that she was suddenly in Squall's arms.

Squall took hold of her fingers and gently gave them a squeeze. While Rinoa bowed her head and shyly tucked her hair behind her ear, he heard a small noise behind him. He turned his head to see Selphie pointing at them and hurriedly whispering to Irvine, who was reaching for his phone.

Squall dropped Rinoa's hand and roughly cleared his throat.

Irvine lifted his head and sent him that infamously charming grin while Selphie squeaked and ducked behind a corner. "My bad," Irvine said. "Carry on." He waved his hand in a grand gesture and quickly turned on his heels.

At the sight, Rinoa let out a soft exhale of a laugh. Her smile grew larger when she saw that Squall's ears were burning a bright red. She reached up and lightly stroked the brown strands that were tucked behind them. When Squall turned his attention back to her she ran her finger over the glossy black plug in his earlobe.

"Have a great tour," she murmured.

He nodded and scooped up her hand again. "I haven't seen the list of the rest of the cities yet," he said. "But when I do and if there is a venue not too far from here…"

"Let me know, I'll be there," Rinoa promised.

Squall lifted up her hand and laid a kiss to her knuckles. "I'll see you, Rinoa."

Her teeth bit down and rolled over her bottom lip at the feel of his kiss. She smiled. "I'll see you."

They broke apart from each other and rounded the corner to where everyone was waiting beside the van. Irvine was locked in a deep embrace with Selphie while Zell was reading over the directions to Quistis, who was quickly sucking on her cigarette.

"I'll call you when we stop," Irvine was saying.

Selphie pulled away, her lips tightly pressed together as she tried not to let the tears spill. "Drive safe," she commanded shakily.

"Always." He turned and gave Rinoa a smile. "Rinoa, it's been real. Keep my Selphie company, will you?"

"Of course," Rinoa said, looping her arm through Selphie's. "I'll have some of the pictures from the show posted within a few days. But first…" She stuck her hand into her bag and pulled out her camera. "Alright bitches! Get in front of that van!"

Everyone lined up in front of it. Irvine placed upon his head the cowboy hat that Selphie had been wearing and leaned against the side of the van, his leg bent so that his foot rested along the side door. Quistis posted herself to his left, hands on her tilted hips as she pursed her lips into a tantalizing kiss. Zell stood to Irvine's right and held his arms up in the air with his fists posed in excitement while his mouth was open in a screaming howl. Squall leaned against the van beside Quistis, his arms crossed over his chest.

Rinoa grinned at how these simple poses spoke volumes of each character and snapped away, laughing while doing so. After a few shots she lowered her camera, shaking her hips as Absolute Lore fell upon themselves with high-fives and congratulatory hand-shakes.

It was happening. Soon everyone across the country would be spoilt with their heart breaking sounds and shattering words. _If only they knew what they were getting themselves into,_ she thought, hoping that the fans would be ready for them.

Then, after a few more rounds of hugs with each of the members, they piled into the van. Squall rolled down the passenger window and pointed a finger to Rinoa. He didn't say a word and instead shot her a look that sent a fiery blaze across her skin.

_Until next time,_ she thought to him.

* * *

**A/N: Hello! Again, many thanks for the reviews, much appreciated! It makes me feel so giddy to see that people are enjoying this story =D**


	17. Chapter 17

**A/N: Sorry for the delay in the update! I've been very busy with work and school. Also, since I have a habit of writing out of chronological order, I have future chapters "done" I just have to create the chapters to GET to those ones! **

**As always, thank you for the reviews and hello there new followers! Enjoy!**

* * *

Rinoa held the bottle of antibiotics in her palm and reflexively shook it. The pills clamoured inside the plastic casing, the noise rattling within her ears. "Take one every four hours until the bottle is empty. Always on a full stomach." She glanced up at Caraway who was blissfully filling himself up with a second cup of coffee.

He gave her a soft grunt to show he acknowledged her words.

She received the call from the hospital that Friday morning that her father was ready for discharge. He was more than happy to catch himself a cab, but since Rinoa was already out and about running errands for the new studio, she offered to just come get him. Also, it enabled her to make sure he was going straight home and following doctor's orders.

After leaving the hospital they stopped by the pharmacy and the grocery store to pick up a few items. Now Caraway was shuffling through the kitchen to put the groceries away, coffee mug in hand, still dressed in the faded blue jeans and gray t-shirt Rinoa had brought him. The outfit looked so alien on him. He looked so out of place without his regular dress of uniform with sharp shoulders and shining medals. He looked…normal—aside from the bandage that was still wrapped around his head.

Her phone called for her attention and she slid her finger over the smooth surface. She smiled. It was a picture message from Quistis. She had been sending Rinoa quick snapshots of their roadtrip for her to put up on the band's page.

_Q.T: He snores._

The picture was a high overhead shot of Quistis, her finger pressed to her lips. Behind her was a sleeping figure with his head resting against the window pane. Rinoa bit back a giggle when she saw that it was Squall, curled up against the door with his arms crossed over his chest and his legs covered with what appeared to be bags of luggage.

_R.H: Are you piling things on him?_

_Q.T: Yep. Seeing how much I can get on him before he wakes up._

_R.H: You are playing a dangerous game._

_Q.T: =)_

Chuckling to herself, Rinoa filtered through her messages from Quistis to find a round of pictures that were sent earlier. They were pictures of the boys, taking a quick break from their road trip. They had pulled over at a rest stop and walked around for a bit to stretch their legs. During their little walk Zell had wandered off and excitedly called for the rest to come quick to see what he had discovered. Zell had found a rather large armadillo and was instantly fascinated by its size. Irvine and Squall approached him and Quistis brought out her phone, knowing full well that something hilarious was about to happen.

Irvine, being the bright star that he was, decided to poke the armadillo with a stick, expecting it to roll up into a ball because "that's what they do on those animal documentary shows." Squall advised against it though he made no move to stop the cowboy, and instead just sipped from his coffee cup.

Naturally, Irvine ignored Squall's monotonous warning and poked the creature. Rather than curl up into a ball, the armadillo began to charge. Quistis had told Rinoa that she wished she had caught the sight on video, but that she was glad that she at least had some photographic evidence of Irvine looking as if he just about shit himself.

Rinoa set the prescription bottle onto the counter and stood to her feet. "Don't think I won't call you every four hours to make sure you take them."

"Understood," Caraway said, bringing the mug to his lips. "Did you make up with your friend?"

Rinoa paused in reaching for her purse. "Huh?"

"You went out with your friend from the hospital and then the next morning you came in looking very upset. Now you look as if you're glowing. So, did you make up with your friend?"

Rinoa's lips ticked in annoyance at her father's perceptive eye. He always was astute to how she was feeling about certain things and people even though she tried her best to keep it concealed. It was when she was upset with him that his talents of perceptiveness suddenly vanished. "Yes," she said lowly, slinging the purse strap over her shoulder. "Yeah, we're fine."

"That's good." Caraway moved over to the cabinet and pulled out a plastic bag filled with onion bagels. With his back turned to her, he spoke firmly as he sawed into the bagel. "He seems to be a good man, but just let him know that if he hurts you, I'll kill him."

Rinoa couldn't help but grin—even as she was rolling her eyes—at Caraway's fatherly threat. There was no doubt in her mind that Caraway's threat actually held valid truth, but she just could not picture him and Squall going at it. Both were too calm and stoic that picturing them throwing punches at each other just seemed too alien and so out of place that it seemed almost hysterical. She had seen her father in action on shooting ranges and in the boxing ring on base before…but she had never seen Squall do anything other than thrash across his drums. She sucked on her bottom lip as she thought to Squall's muscular arms wildly crossing over the skins, his fists dominantly holding the drumsticks as he used them to beat the cymbals.

"Yes, Caraway," she said with a smile.

"I'm being serious." He placed the bagel slices into the toaster oven and turned the dial. "Artemis speaks fondly of him, but since I've only known her a few days I cannot be fully behind her judgement. But…" He glanced at her over his shoulder and lifted a thick eyebrow. "I saw the way you look at him."

Rinoa made a gruff noise within her throat. "Whatever," she said, feeling her cheeks warm.

She looked down at her phone and saw that it was just after two—she had plans to meet Zone and Watts at the new studio so they could set up the lobby. "Shit, I gotta go," she said. "I'll call you later to make sure you took your pills."

"Of course," Caraway said over his shoulder, waving the serrated knife in the air. "Have fun setting up your new office."

* * *

When Rinoa arrived at her new office, Zone had already set up her first job. "Senior photos," he told her, handing her a sheet of paper with the client's information on it. "She's an avid equestrian so during our consulation we decided that the shoot will be at her family ranch. Easy peasy."

"Lemon squeezy," Rinoa added. "Great, thanks." She folded up the paper and stuck it into her purse. "You got the deposit already?"

"Already cashed the check when I met with her and her parents the other day. You are all set for Sunday." Zone wiped at his forehead and sent her a nod. "Did you grab those curtin rod hooks I asked for?"

Rinoa adjusted the shopping bag that dangled from her arm. "I did," she proudly said.

"Great." Zone held up a small tool box. "Alright, get to work. Watts and I already painted the main lobby so it's all set for you to hang up all the hardware."

Rinoa made a face. She preferred to paint.

"Sorry, Princess," Watts called out to her with a smile. "But while you were busy schmoozing with the rock stars we had already started the refurbishing." In response to the sharp glare he received, Watts only sent her a charming grin and adjusted the knit beanie he wore upon his head.

"I was _working_," Rinoa snapped. "Not schmoozing. Asswipe."

Watts chuckled and brought over the stepladder he had been using. "Oh, yes, of course! There is no doubt of that—the photos you've published onto their site are phenomenal." He reached into his back pocket to pull out his phone. "I have to say…I think this one is my favorite." After a few moments of scrolling through the online album, Watts held up his phone to show Rinoa the photo she had taken of Zell at Saturday's show.

The strobing lights were playing behind him, making his figure a dark silhouette at the front of the stage. Rinoa had captured him during one of his rifts, his boot placed upon the stage's floor light so that his leg was bent, his broad shoulders slightly hunched as he let the music rip through his fingers. Even though the light was behind him and most of his form was concealed in shadow, his facial features were still revealed. Across his face was pure concentration and bliss, lost within the euphoria musicians felt when the music they created flow from their soul.

"Thank you," Rinoa said, her smile growing as she thought back to the show. _Wow, it was only last week…_ she thought. Time had been flying by at such a speed that she hardly had time to breathe.

"Actually…I think _this _one is my favorite," Watts corrected himself, he swiped through his phone and pulled up a photo from Rinoa's photography page. It was the one she took of all of them just before they headed for the beach.

Rinoa almost made a squeak within her throat at the sight of the picture. "We're so cute!" she cooed, her eyes drifting over everyone's grinning faces.

"Oh, yes," Watts said in a voice that made Rinoa pause. Laced in his tone was a hint of teasing and something else that said that he was leading up to a point in particular. He held the phone up and looked at the photo. "Cute indeed," he said. "Especially _this guy_ whose cheek is quite close to yours."

There it is.

Rinoa's shoulders slumped slightly and she narrowed her eyes at him. "And your point is…?"

Zone snapped his head in their direction and hastily set the tool box onto the ground. "Wait…what? What guy?" He snagged the phone from Watts's hand and stared intently at the picture. After a moment he looked at Rinoa. "Who's this?" he demanded, his voice cracking.

Rinoa pressed her lips together as she watched Zone become flustered. It was common knowledge between the three of them that Zone had once had a crush on Rinoa, however, Zone was the only one who thought that Rinoa _didn't_ know. She simply shrugged. "That would be Squall, the drummer. And the blonde guy is the guitarist, Zell." She stepped forward and tapped a nail on Irvine's face. "That's the singer, Irvine, and the brunette is his girlfriend Selphie—who went to DECA with me. And the drop dead gorgeous blonde is Quistis, the bassist."

"Well, Squall looks pretty damn comfy with you," Zone said in a huff.

Rinoa rolled her eyes and snatched the phone from his hand before giving it back to Watts. "Now look what you've started," she scolded, pulling the knit cap from his head and tossing it behind her shoulder. Trying her hardest to look stern, she narrowed her eyes at him when he ruffled his fingers through the mop of sandy blonde hair that sat upon his head.

"So…you _like _him, don't you?" Zone said, his tone suddenly lightening into a teasing mood. His dark grey eyes sparkled with mischief and he reached out to daintily prod her shoulder. "Let me guess…you _like like _him!"

Rinoa laughed and smacked away his hand. "Haven't figured that out yet," she replied. When Watts gave her a look she said, "What? He's on tour! We've decided to figure _us_ out when his tour is over."

Watts nodded his head as he thought about Rinoa's statement. "Makes sense," he commented. "Well, I hope everything works out how you want it to." He leaned over and picked up the tool box Zone had set down. "Now get to work."

Rinoa stuck out her tongue but snapped the tool box out of his grasp.

* * *

**Friday night/Saturday morning**

Squall let out a long yawn, his tongue curling as his breath escaped him. His shoulders dropped and he rubbed his eyes with the heel of his palm. They had finally arrived to their destination in Dollet. He checked his watch, it was just after two in the morning. He glanced over to Zell, who had been the one to finish the long trek.

The blonde man ran his fingers through his hair, which was now hanging in front of his eyes since it had been without its famously strong hair gel the last few days. Zell groaned as he arched his spine backwards. "Fuckin hell," he muttered.

Quistis practically tumbled out of the van, catching her balance by gripping her fingers around Zell's bicep. "We're here," she moaned. "We're dead but we're here…"

Irvine let out a long and rumbling groan as he stretched his arms up into the air. "Man…what a fuckin' drive." He looked over to Zell and gave his drooping head a quick shake. "How you holding up, buddy?"

"Coffee," was the strained response. "Or Jack Daniels. Either one."

Squall nodded his head. "I'm with him."

"Hey guys!"

Irvine turned his head at the sudden call. He squinted his eyes for a moment, trying to see the face of the approaching figure. When the man stepped beneath the dim lamp light of the parking lot, Irvine rose his arms in the air and gave an excited holler. "Hans! How's it going, you son of a bitch!"

Hans, a tall and burly man with a long and full caramel colored beard, embraced Irvine with thick and tatted arms. "Man, you guys are a godsend." He pulled away and gave Squall a hearty smack on the shoulder. "Seriously, thanks so much for joining our tour."

"Thanks for thinking of us specifically," Quistis grinned. "We were pretty excited when our band manager told us that Djin Theory had recommended us."

Hans turned eyes to her and he immediately sent her a charming smile. "For you, beautiful, anything."

"Oh, stop," Quistis said, waving her hand at him in a laughing nonchalant matter. "Where's everyone else? Did you guys play a show tonight?"

"No, last night we did." Hans glanced over his shoulder and pointed to the motel he had just come out of. "We came into town a little earlier today, Fujin demanded we get a motel room this time. Normally it's just the tour bus." He gestured towards the long and tall bus that was parked near the end of the motel's parking lot. A door closed behind him and he looked over, a grin forming onto his lips. "Speak of the devil."

Fujin approached, her painted lips upturned into a wide and purple smile. "Yay, you guys have arrived!" She wrapped her arms around Hans's waist and gave him a stern frown. "I thought you were heading to the gas station to get more beer."

"I was. Got distracted." He flinched when Fujin gave an audible sigh and he quickly slipped from her grasp. "Going right now." Hans lifted his chin to Squall. "Wanna walk with me? It's right around the corner."

Squall gave a nod and quickly lit himself a cigarette before following him out.

Fujin watched the two walk away and turned towards Quistis and Irvine. "How was the drive?" she asked, leaning in to give Zell and quick hug.

"_Long_," Zell moaned. "Decided to bling out your eye-patch, huh?"

Fujin chuckled and lightly ran her fingers over the black, studded patch that concealed her left eye. "Yeah, thought I might jazz it up a bit. Now that I make it all pretty I don't get asked about it much anymore…people just think that it's part of my image."

"And you shaved your head!" Quistis exclaimed, rounding behind the shorter girl and running her fingertips over the back of her head, shorn almost to the scalp. "Your hair was much longer when we played that show together last holiday."

Fujin ran her fingers through the longer section of her silver hair, the longest strands just barely reaching the sharp point of her chin. "Thought I'd try something new! Still getting used to it—plus, I feel like I'm having Royce take clippers to it nearly every other week!"

"Oh yeah, that'll happen," Zell said. "The shorter your hair is the more often you get your hair cut. Look at this fucker," he grimaced, hooking a thumb into Irvine's direction. "He gets his hair cut maybe once a year."

Irvine narrowed his eyes. "Can't help it I was blessed with hair from the gods." He pulled out his phone and started typing away.

"Alerting the masses that you've arrived in Dollet?" Fujin asked.

Irvine chuckled but shook his head. "Nah, letting the little lady know that we arrived safely."

Fujin's mouth dropped open and she squealed. "Little lady! Selphie? Tell her I said hi!"

"Will do."

* * *

After a while Hans and Squall returned with their arms filled with bags. "Alright so we grabbed some more beer, some snacks, and a few other bottles," Hans listed off as he glanced down at his purchases. "Figured you were hungry so I got you some chips."

Immediately Fujin reached in and yanked out the bag of salty goodness.

"Zell, here's your Jack." Squall reached into his brown paper bag and grabbed the whiskey bottle around its neck.

"Oh, fuck yes." Zell took hold of the bottle and quickly broke open the seal. "So, Hans said something about you guys getting a motel room instead of your tour bus?"

Fujin nodded and motioned for them to follow her. "Yeah, before we came into Dollet we stopped at the casino just outside of town. Won five hundred bucks!"

"So she decided we use our winnings to get us a motel room," Hans finished. "I mean, it ain't Deling Hotel ritzy but it sure as hell beats the tour bus!" They walked up to room 217 and Hans watched Fujin slide the key card through.

Inside were the two remaining band members, Esteban and Royce. Royce was sitting on the edge of one of the Queen-sized beds, his dark eyes glued to the television in front of him. His long, black dreadlocks just barely brushed the tops of his shoulders and his arms were reaching upwards, his fingers adjusting the gray bandana wrapped around his head. He glanced up at the entering group and lifted his chin in acknowledgement. "Having a party, are we?" he asked.

"Just for a little bit," Fujin said. "Esteban passed out already?"

The other man, laying across the bed that Royce was sitting on, lifted his head. "What do you mean already?" he demanded. "It's after two!" With a grunt he pushed up onto his elbows and scratched his fingernails over his shorn scalp.

"He can't hang," Royce said, graciously accepting the packet of red licorice that Hans handed over. With a piece of a Red Vine dangling between his teeth, Royce added, "Ever since he turned twenty-eight he can't hack it with the younger crowd."

Esteban shot out a hand and knocked Royce off the bed. "Shut up, young cub."

Fujin laughed and sat down upon the small sofa that was set up across from the two beds. "Royce, be nice to your bandmates," she lectured, softly nudging him with the toe of her boot.

"Yes, mama bear," Royce said from the ground, slowly chewing on his licorice.

Zell sat down on the empty bed and took a long swallow from his bottle. "Oh, fuck yes," he groaned. "Sweet nectar of life from the gods!" He handed the bottle to Squall who quickly tossed a shot back. "So, how has tour life been treating you? We're pretty damn excited," Zell asked.

Hans sat down in between the two beds and rested his elbows upon his knees. "As you should be! It's crazy…pretty hectic, not even going to lie. Tomorrow you'll meet our tour manager and the rest of the staff. They're pretty awesome."

Fujin sipped from the beer she grabbed from one of Hans's bags. "So we're on at eleven, I think you guys play two sets before us."

"How are the other bands?" Quistis asked, taking hold of Zell's bottle.

"They're great," Esteban said. "Odin's Blade—who I think is the set before us—will be here in the morning, they decided to hang out at the casino a little longer."

Irvine bobbed his head as he listened. "There's four bands, right? Who's the fourth band?"

"Doomtrain."

Zell nearly dropped his bottle. "Oh, shit! They've been around for years!"

Fujin giggled. "Yeah, I love them! They're all in their forties and are doing this just for fun! I want to be just like them when we grow up." She turned her head slightly and caught Squall yawning. "Since we're staying in the motel, you guys can sleep in the tour bus, if you want."

Quistis made a face. "Aw, fuck. I completely forgot that we have a van."

Hans lifted his leg and gave Quistis's foot a nudge. "It's how you always start off. We all slept in a van too until we started making some cash and was able to afford a bus." He wagged his eyebrows at her and stroked his beard. "You can sleep on the couch with me," he suggested.

Quistis arched a perfect brow. "Couch?"

"Yeah, Royce kicks around in his sleep."

"Ignore him," Fujin groaned, rolling her eye. "He sleeps on the couch because the seat cushions are firm and it helps with his back." She reached over and grabbed the keys. "You guys are more than welcome to utilize the bus until we start driving again."

Squall walked over and took the keys. "So tomorrow night—well, I guess it's today now—we're playing at Occult. Our next show is when? Tuesday?"

"Yeah, but it's not far from here. Just the next city over, so we technically don't have to go anywhere."

"Well, I for one am all for sleeping in the bus. As long as we can use the shower in here as well," Quistis chirped.

"There's a shower in the bus," Royce said.

Quistis blinked. "Fuck. Yes."

Squall pulled out his cigarettes and headed for the door. "I'll start moving some of our shit into the bus," he said. "Thanks for letting us use it."

Fujin nodded her head. "Anytime! Sleeping in a van is not fun—we know!"

"Squall, did you need help moving some of bags over?" Irvine asked.

"Nah, it's not like there's a lot."

Zell raised his arms overhead and gave a stretch. "You passing out once you move shit over?"

Squall nodded as his hand came around the door knob. "That's the plan. Night guys."

* * *

After he moved everyone's overnight bags into the tour bus, Squall changed into his plain black sweats and stood outside with his cigarette. Absently he scrolled through his phone, his attention seemingly searching for nothing, his thumb mindlessly tapping 'like' on random pictures and posts.

It was when his eyes landed on the back of a petite raven-haired girl in jean shorts atop a ladder, screwdriver in hand as she appeared to be leveling a curtain rod, that he paused and felt a sharp grin cut into his lips.

Her long black hair was twisted off into a pony tail that draped down the curve of her spine, the gray tank top just barely reaching the tops of her shorts and so showing a teasing hint of flesh. Those perfect inked wings along her shoulder blades and backs of her arms were open, the illusion appearing as if the wings were spread and prepared to take flight.

His breath stilled as he stared at the photo. He read the caption: _"These jerks made me do ACTUAL labor!"_ in her voice.

He exhaled one last cloud of smoke through his lips and went back inside the bus. Near the back of the bus were the "beds," two sets of bunk beds that hung off the sides. The beds were fairly wide for comfort, but were definitely not made to cater to people taller than five-foot-six. He crawled into one of the bottom ones, maneuvering his body so that his legs were bent so he could fit comfortably.

Squall shifted onto his back, his knees bumping the bottom of the bed above him. Grimacing at the sharp flash of pain, he opened up a new message to Rinoa. However, since his attention was on rubbing his knee and sleep deprivation was starting to fog his brain, he accidentally hit 'call' with his thumb.

He hadn't even realized what he'd done until Rinoa's silky voice filled the silence of the tour bus.

"Hello?"

Squall jerked and looked at the contraption in his palm. "Hey," he said.

He heard her chuckle softly, her voice thick and rumbling as if she were laying in bed. The thought made him wince. _Shit, what time is it over there now?_ "Sorry, is it too late to call? I don't even know what time it is anymore," he muttered.

"It's almost midnight, I think," she said. "I wasn't sleeping, just laying in bed reading."

"What are you reading?"

"A murder mystery."

"Very nice." Squall shifted in the bed again, this time taking more care not to bump his knee again. "Just…uh, wanted to let you know that we've arrived in Dollet."

"Yay! How was the drive?"

"Fucking brutal."

"And the armadillo?"

Squall actually laughed out loud before he could stop himself. He raised his hand and ran his fingers through his hair. "I think Irvine will make a full physical recovery. His ego, however, was definitely taken down a notch."

Rinoa giggled and he could hear her move around. He sucked in a breath as his mind created a picture for him—Rinoa wrapped around in her sheets, her long black hair spilling over her bare shoulders as she rolled around onto her stomach, her phone cradled against her cheek as she grinned. Beneath those sheets—Squall saw her owning sheets that were dark blue or even a royal purple—she would be completely nude to keep cool from the warm night temperatures. Squall smothered a groan that threatened to rise from his throat…there was no time to think of her like that, especially since there was no place for him to go and take care of his urges.

"His poor ego," she purred.

"Yeah. Anyway, I just wanted to let you know we got here ok."

Rinoa made an affirmative noise within her throat and Squall heard her softly yawn. "Thank you," she said. "Get some sleep, I'm sure you're exhausted—plus you have your first show tomorrow night!"

"Yeah…I think Zell mentioned that Djin Theory usually live streams their entire show."

She chuckled again…that silky, seductively breathy sound. "Just send me the website and time of your set," she told him. "And send me pictures! I'll take care of your web page while you guys are on tour."

"Will do."

"If I don't get a chance to talk to you tomorrow…have a great show," she said. "I hope you guys do something fun when you're not playing shows though."

"We will. Good night, Rinoa."

"Good night," she said.

* * *

Rinoa hung up and looked at the screen on her phone that flashed the words CALL ENDED. Then the screen changed to her regular home screen wallpaper, a shot she took during the beginning stages of a thunderstorm that took place while she was shooting in front of a renowned haunted hotel. The sky was gray and foreboding behind the classic red roof of the hotel, the window panes were pitch black against the white paint. Rinoa thought back to that photoshoot and cringed when she thought about the horror stories she was told during her stay there. She actually didn't even stay in the hotel itself, but rather a cheap ass motel room down the road that she had shared with another photographer.

She placed her phone onto her nightstand and sat up onto her knees so she could adjust the shirt she wore—Squall's shirt. Absently she redid the messy bun that sat atop her head and maneuvered herself so she was back under her bed sheets. She twisted her lips as she thought about her brief conversation with Squall. She hoped that they would be able to talk again but knew that his schedule would be very jam-packed. Plus, her schedule seemed to be increasing as well. Before she left the studio (sweaty and grimy thanks to Watts's insistence that she also help in moving around all the damned furniture) Zone received a phone call from a family friend who wanted to hire him for a quick engagement shoot on the beach.

With that thought in mind, Rinoa reached over and set her alarm for eight o' clock. The beach shoot was set for noon and the bride to be had made a suggestion that they have their shoot to be like a casual lunch date on the boardwalk. Rinoa already had a plan in motion. Basically, she and Zone would follow around the couple and take candid shots of them while they carried on as if it were a normal day out.

After turning off the bedside lamp, Rinoa snuggled against her pillow, the shirt's sleeve lifting up towards her nose. She could still smell him in the fabric, could still feel how his muscles contracted beneath the shirt while she ran her fingernails over his chest. A smile spread across her mouth and a sharp giggle escaped from her.

"You _like like_ him," she said, mimicking Zone's teasing voice. She groaned and flipped onto her back, her arm covering her eyes. "_Ugh._ Yes. Yes I do," she admitted to herself. "So. Fucking. Much."


	18. Chapter 18

**A/N: Hello! The Band is With Me has reached over 4,100 views! Yay! Thank you again for all the reviews and for continuing to read! xoxoxox**

* * *

Rinoa grinned, her nose scrunching as she clicked away at the adorable couple in front of her. The couple was standing in the middle of the boardwalk, the groom to be with his back towards Rinoa and his face towards Zone. The bride to be had her arm looped around her fiancé's waist, her cheek resting casually against his shoulder as she chuckled softly to herself.

Rinoa played with her settings for a moment so that even though the couple was surrounded by a few people walking through the boardwalk, the couple was the only ones in crystal clear sight. "Eyes only for each other," Rinoa murmured, raising the camera to her eyes as she kept the couple in pristine focus.

The bride moved away, her fingers lightly trailing over her groom's stomach before lacing her hand into his. Almost wistfully her long pink skirt billowed around her legs, her tawny hair suddenly gathered up by the soft gentle breeze that whispered through. As she carefully tucked her strands behind her ear, Rinoa snapped a few shots of the groom staring adoringly at the woman in front of him.

_They are __**adorable**__, _Rinoa thought. As she captured a few more shots, she couldn't help but sigh tenderly at the look of complete love and devotion that was displayed on the groom's face. It was something straight out of a romance film and it reminded Rinoa of a quote she had seen floating around online that said something along the lines that one could see how much a man really loved his woman by the way he looked at her when she wasn't looking.

A quick movement caught her eye and she glanced up to see Zone gesturing to her. "I think that's it!" he mouthed to her.

"Yay!" Rinoa lowered her camera and stepped down from her perch, a stone slope that curved along the length of the boardwalk. Both she and Zone approached the lovers and Rinoa gave the bride a quick hug. "We got some _amazing_ shots! I can't wait to show you!"

The bride clapped her hands and excitedly planted a kiss to her groom's cheek. "Thank you! Thank you so much for being able to do this—I know it was so last minute…but he's getting called away for business in a few days and he'll be out of state for at least two weeks."

"Oh no! Well, we'll get these to you soon enough, promise. Then you'll be able to look at his pretty face all the time."

* * *

Irvine finished chugging down the rest of her water when he saw Hans come in through the hall. After swallowing the last sip, Irvine tossed the bottle into the bin and looked over to Hans. "What's up?"

The other man grinned and softly stroked his beard. "Did you know that a teaser for your guys's video is up?"

"What?" Irvine jumped out of his seat and hurried after Hans. "That motherfucker didn't tell me!" he protested, pulling out his phone to see if he had any missed texts—he didn't. He followed Hans into the other room where the remainder of their own bands were huddled around Esteban and his laptop. Joining them were also two members from Doomtrain, the bassist from Odin's Blade, the tour manager, and one of Occult's bartenders.

Quistis lifted her head and quickly motioned for Irvine to come over. "Hurry! You haven't missed too much," she assured. "They started off with little pieces of that interview Seifer had us do."

The video itself was just barely under three minutes, in the background was their song _'Misery'_ playing while Quistis was on the screen, finishing up her makeup. _"Music is an outlet," _she was saying. _"Some people paint, some draw, some dance! We…play hard rock."_

Zell's chuckling form came across the screen, little flashes of him shredding on his guitar flickered over him. _"It's a trip,"_ he laughed. _"When I'm playing it's like this whole 'nother being just __**comes out**__."_

_"__I love it,"_ Irvine laughed, shown on the couch as he looked over to Squall, who was checking out the crash symbol he was having Zell hold. _"It's the best feeling in the world to be able to play this music…this __**creation**__ that we all had a part in."_

_"__We all come together with this," _Quistis added in. _"Squall will be fucking around with some beat and then Zell will jump in to add a riff. Sometimes we come up with something awesome in a matter of hours…sometimes it takes weeks. You just never know!"_

The camera then moved over to Squall, who was now shown sitting on the couch and taking a long swallow from his beer bottle. When he took notice that the camera was aimed on him, he offered a slight grin and raised his beer in toast. _"Cheers to that,"_ was all he said.

As the band laughed together and raised their own drinks in a pre-show toast, the background music grew louder and heavier, fluidly shifting from interview scenes to actual footage of the show.

The camera panned through the crowd, focusing on Selphie and the way she swivled her hips, her eyes closed and lips slightly parted, her hands caressing the curve of her jaw and the slope of her throat as she let the music embrace her.

Irvine made a throaty groan at the sight of her moving her luscious body. "Goddamn," he hissed.

Quistis sipped her water. "That is a fine looking woman you snagged yourself there," she said.

"That she is," Hans agreed, giving Irvine an admiring slap onto the back. "Job well done."

Fujin only chuckled softly, her head softly shaking as she watched Hans's eyes nearly bulge from their sockets. She turned her view back to the screen, nodding her head to the thunderous beat that vibrated through the stereo.

Across the screen Irvine shouted into the mic, "_The only way that I can describe this life I'm a train wreck survivor buried alive/No sign of life for days but's it's quiet here so I'm going to sleep for a while…_"

The camera flashed over to Zell with his foot balanced atop one of the stage lights, the glowing yellow illuminating the many studs that adorned the toe of his boot.

"_Do you really need a reason?/Right moment, right time, right season/Let's not pretend who we're pleasing here/Because I don't need a better reason/It's gonna alter my direction/It's something that you seem to have forgotten to mention…to mention…_"

Irvine's gravelly voice pulsated through the devastatingly striking crashes of Squall's drums, the quick strums of Zell's guitar, and Quistis's throaty plucks of her strings.

The screen was now filled with an overhead shot of Squall dominating his drum's skins. The muscles of his forearms quivered and clenched with each thrash, his long hair shook over the nape of his neck. The camera focused then on Quistis, who was arching her spine and letting her head fall backward as she slapped her fingers over her bass. When Squall slammed his drumstick heavily onto his tom, Quistis snapped her head forward, strands of her blond hair falling over one of her eyes. The image filled the entire screen of the laptop and exuded steamy and raw passion.

"_So how can I look away?/When our hearts seem to be breaking down…_"

The camera panned over the thriving crowd, the flashing lights illuminating a few excited faces with their mouths open in screaming howls. Then the camera landed on the back of one girl, her long black hair reaching the curve of her waist that flared out into hips that were currently swaying to the beat.

Squall's brow lifted. Instantly he recognized those hips. As if to cement the notion, she raised an arm and hooked that long waterfall of black hair over her shoulder, exposing the inky wings that spread over the backs of her arms. She raised those winged arms high overhead, camera in hand, rotating her hips and then jumping in time when the dancing brunette from earlier in the video came in and joined her.

_"__You made an addict out of me without even knowing/You made an addict out of me without even knowing/You made an addict out of me without even knowing I was a sucker for another dose of you…"_

Rinoa turned, her beautiful profile flashing across the screen as Selphie grabbed her hand and dragged her away. The camera followed them for a split moment, showing the girls laughing as they snaked through the crowd.

Slowly the music died down and the screen turned black, filled only with the words: _Absolute Lore's first music video "MISERY" launching soon!_

The video came to an end and Esteban turned in his seat and gave them a hearty clap. "Very nice!" he said. "Seems that your first video is coming along nicely!"

The tour manager, Ward, gave a deep and rolling laugh while he raised his arms above his head and applauded. "I can't wait to see the rest!" he rumbled. "So honored to have you aboard with us on the tour."

"Doesn't hurt that you've got a bit of eye candy going on in there too," Fujin said, suggestively raising her eyebrows. "It's good that they're showing that you have some hot fans!"

Zell nodded. "Oh yeah. We definitely have some _fine_ looking fans!"

"It helps too that you guys are all pretty yourselves," said Eli, the guitarist from Doomtrain.

"How you mean?" Zell asked.

"Unfortunately, talent isn't enough in this business," Fujin sighed. "Now, I'm sure you guys would have gotten far with your sound and talent alone, but now that everyone soon know what you all _look_ like—since you guys are infamous for your lack of pictures—you guys will get there _faster_."

Eli reluctantly nodded. "Welcome to the industry," he said, holding his arms wide.

"We did kinda expect that," Irvine grumbled. "We just have to kick ass and continuing blowing everyone's minds with our music—fuck what we look like." He ran his palms over his hair and smoothed his coppery locks into a ponytail. "We'll draw them in with our looks and keep them interested with our talent if we have to."

His phone rang from his back pocket and he quietly excused himself.

The bassist from Odin's Blade, Gregor, looked down to his watch. "I should probably go pull the guys from the bar," he said. "It's almost time for us to set up."

"I thought you guys were after us?" Quistis asked.

"Normally we would be, but we switched set line up with Doomtrain for tonight."

"Morgan's son got into a car accident a few months ago—he's fine—but he had to get metal screws into his ankle and tomorrow he's going into surgery again to get them replaced. Kid's only twelve so Morgan is video-chatting with him to keep his spirits up," Eli explained, talking about their singer.

Irvine came back over, gently sliding the phone into his back pocket. "That was Selphie, she says good luck to our first show together!"

Quistis made a face. "Aww…I miss her already."

"I know the feeling! She told me she's waiting for Rinoa to finish up at the studio to come over. They're going to watch the live stream on Selphie's computer."

"Nice!" exclaimed Zell.

* * *

Rinoa pulled open the microwave door, smiling brightly as the scent of freshly popped popcorn wafted into the air. "Yay!" she said, carefully taking the bag between her fingers and emptying the contents into a large glass bowl. "Selphie! Popcorn's ready!"

"Bring it here!"

As Rinoa entered Selphie's living room, she carefully stepped over the piles of clothes that were sorted out onto the floor. It was laundry day in the Tilmitt house, apparently. Rinoa moved herself onto the couch and watched Selphie mess with her cables so that her computer was now connected to the television.

Selphie stepped back for a moment, eyes narrowing as she watched the television screen blip before it displayed the Occult's live feed. "Yay!" she said, clapping her hands. She looked over to her clock. "Alright so the first band is already setting up." Selphie joined Rinoa on the couch.

Not long after Rinoa and Selphie blew through the first set and their tub of popcorn. Rinoa was licking the buttery residue from her fingers when Squall walked across the stage to his kit. Instantly her jaw clenched and she felt her eyes widen a fraction.

Selphie took notice and gave Rinoa a shove. "What are you—seventeen again? Falling headfirst for the hot musician?"

Rinoa laughed and leaned back against the cushions. "Oh…what is it about being seventeen?" she asked. "You know? You like, think you know everything and can take on the world with just that fiery look in your eye as your guns blazing and then looking back it's like…wow, bitch, you didn't know _shit._"

Selphie paused in lifting her soda to her lips and gave Rinoa a weird look. "Everything alright?" she laughed.

"Don't judge me," Rinoa said through a smile. "I got some boxes out of storage and found some old journals."

Immediately Selphie winced. "Yeesh…"

"I wanted to up and leave and like…go live on a train!"

Selphie laughed and set her soda onto her side table. "For real? I mean, I remember when we met at eighteen you were definitely the free-spirited type, but I definitely don't remember you wanting to live on a train!"

"Yeah…a year after I wrote the entry I figured that living on a college campus _away_ from home was much more liveable. It also helped that I earned a scholarship…but you know." A sharp, powerful, hearty smack along the snare drum caught Rinoa's attention and she jumped. Her eyes turned back to the screen and she saw Squall sitting on his throne; his left hand hovering over his snare drum, drumstick captured within his fist, while his right hand was lifted up to adjust his hi-hat.

_Dammit though, he does look delicious,_ she thought, her tongue running over her teeth as she watched him move. Before she knew it, hard and heavy sounds were coming through the speakers of Selphie's television and filling the space of her living room.

Selphie squealed and jumped onto her sofa, her barefeet sinking into the plush cushions as she hopped and tried to keep her balance. "There's my babe!" she cried. "There he is! On his first tour and looking _damn_ sexy!"

Rinoa joined Selphie in gales of laughter and together they danced, thrashed their hair to the beat, and raised their arms in glee as if Absolute Lore were truly in the room with them, gracing the two with their own private show.

While Selphie was lost in her own little world of dancing madly in circles to the thrum of Irvine's gravelly voice, Rinoa paused so she could actually watch the band members move. Quistis and Zell moved across the stage so fluidly, maneuvering with their hunks of intruments effortlessly. When Irvine was able to take a quick break from singing, he clutched the guitar that hung low against his pelvis and held it so provactively as if he were making love to it, the throbbing and vibrating chords were equivalent to orgasmic moans.

It wasn't easy to watch Squall since he was partially hidden behind his set, but Rinoa had seen him practice enough to know some of his movements. She was able to see his arms thrash around and a bit of his head, though it was lowered so he could concentrate. His head lifted for a moment, and for a brief second Rinoa was able to see the hard glint of his steely blue eyes beneath the glaring stage lights.

Squall tilted his head back, his eyes closed as he prepared to bring his arms back down violently over the skins. Rinoa sucked in a breath. The way his throat worked, the euphoric closing of the eyes and the slightly parted lips…it was the same face he had displayed when she was riding him in his Jeep.

_His sex face,_ she thought. He made the same ecstasy-filled face when he was inside her as he made when he played the drums. Her insides suddenly were overflowing with giddiness. Quistis herself had said that playing onstage was orgasmic and almost better than sex…Squall had countered that it depended on the girl.

"Why are you blushing?"

Rinoa snapped her head towards Selphie's direction. "Uh…what?"

Selphie only narrowed her eyes and twisted her lips into a schemeful smirk. "You know, Irvine told me that when he makes that face"—She pointed to the screen where Irvine was practically growling through his teeth, his eyes lustful and filled with dark and palpable promises that spoke of twisted bed sheets and fists gripping a metal headboard—"He pretends that he's fucking me. Says that it helps really 'get into the moment' to make the performance even more…_stimulating._"

Rinoa could only stare as she listened to what Selphie was saying. She could feel her bottom lip drop lower and her cheeks grow hotter. "Um…ok?" she finally managed to utter out.

"The crowd feels it," Selphie was continuing. "Look at them. They're practically coming in their jeans." She giggled as she danced a finger over the screen of her television. "It just makes me wonder, really…what do you think they're feeling from Squall?"

The brunette flipped her hair and gave Rinoa a quick wink before skipping off into the kitchen to grab another soda.

Rinoa swallowed. She had yet to tell Selphie about the wild night with Squall the night before they all left on tour…but it still seemed that her friend had an inkling of what had transpired. She wanted to tell Selphie, wanted to gush and giggle and compare sex notes…but deep inside she still wanted to be greedy and keep that night only to herself. After all, she and Squall promised that they would keep that night between them until he got back and they could figure out their…"situation."

Selphie returned and handed a canned soda to Rinoa. As she watched Absolute Lore pack up their gear and move off the stage, she sat down on the couch and pulled her legs up beneath her. "The band that's headlining is called Djin Theory," she said. "Absolute Lore played with them last holiday and several times before that."

"Are they also from Deling?" Rinoa asked, grateful that Selphie had instigated a new topic.

"Fujin is," Selphie said. "She's the singer. She went to high school with Irvine but they didn't really know each other. Irvine said that what he could remember about her was that she was really quiet and kept to herself. I think she said that she was in choir?"

Rinoa sank into the cushions. "Choir? And now she's in a rock band, that's pretty cool."

"She's super nice too. I hope you get to meet her when they roll back through here."

After Doomtrain's thunderous set, Djin Theory finally walked onto the stage, welcomed by roaring cheers and chanting praises. Rinoa lifted her brows, intrigued as she watched the band members one by one take their places. Then, lastly, Fujin took center stage.

She was striking. Her silver hair was a jagged and angular cap upon her head, decorated with only a leopard print headband. Her outfit was so simple and yet so devastatingly hypnotic. Fujin gripped the mic with one hand as she cocked her hip, her low slung tight jeans clinging to her lean and muscular legs. Her leather boots were strapped up the length of her calves, little metal circlets dancing around her hips as they fell from her belt. Her top was nothing more than a fitted black tank top. But what caught Rinoa's attention the most was the eyepatch over Fujin's left eye, decorated with little silver studs in the shape of an X.

Fujin brought the mic to her darkly painted lips and she graced the crowd with a meltingly sensual smile. "Hello my dears," she purred, earning heaps of whistles and hollers from the erupting crowd. Fujin chuckled and waved slim fingers to the fans. "How is everyone doing tonight?"

Rinoa turned to Selphie. "Wow," was all she said.

"Right?"

For the rest of the show Rinoa found that she could not take her eyes off of Fujin. The woman was _mesmerizing._ She strutted her legs across the stage, she wickedly swayed her hips to the thrusting beat given to her by her bandmates, she pursed her painted lips to the crowd as she crooned…she was a siren. For a moment Rinoa was hoping that Djin Theory was in need of a photoshoot.

Afterwards, Rinoa helped Selphie clean up. "How long has Djin Theory been around?" she asked.

"Um…a few years," Selphie answered. "Like, maybe a year or two longer than Absolute Lore? I know that they're on their second bassist already. The original left about six months before they really started to get big."

"What happened?"

"He got an offer for another band that's also doing pretty well in another country."

Rinoa dumped the popcorn kernels into the trash. "Oh! Well good for him!" A thought entered her mind and she turned to Selphie. "Holy shit—what if Absolute Lore goes international?"

Selphie giggled. "Oh wow…that would be amazing! I mean, I'm ready to cry now because I'm so proud of Irvy—and it's only been his first show!"

"But say if they did start touring internationally, would you go with him?"

Selphie paused, her hand hovering over the faucet knob. Her lips twisted as she thought. "I think it would all depend on where we're at, you know? As in where we are as a couple…are we getting married, are we going to have kids soon, are we financially set enough where I don't have to work since I won't be able to work if I'm bouncing around city to city with them…you know, all that."

Rinoa nodded. "Makes sense." After a pause Rinoa suddenly felt a spray of cold water against her back. She shrieked in surprise and nearly jumped out of her skin. "The hell was that for?" she demanded, glaring at the petite brunette who was aiming the detachable sink nozzle at her.

"Now look what you've done!" Selphie cried. "Now you've put it into my mind and now I'm over-thinking and over-planning and over-hyping _everything!_"

* * *

Fujin chuckled and draped an arm around Squall's shoulder for balance. "Oh, come on…" she slurred. "Help me finish this bottle—we're celebrating! It was a great show!" She looked over to Esteban who was polishing off the rest of his beer. "All four bands together! We…we are just…fucking awesome."

Squall took the bottle from her hands and chugged the last of it. He was never a fan of champagne, but she was right, it was a celebration of sorts. Across his tongue he could taste the waxy residue of Fujin's lipstick and he looked down at the lip of the bottle, stained purple from her mouth. "I think you've had enough," he said.

"I'm sure you are correct, sir!" she replied, moving her arm away from him to clutch at his hand before dropping onto the couch. She tried to pull him down to sit with her but was distracted when a leggy blonde came dancing into the room.

Quistis came up to Squall and practically jumped into his arms. "Squaaaaaalll…" she sang. "You're the soberest right now, you wanna go get pancakes with me?"

"It's two in the morning," he said, his arms suddenly around her slim waist to keep her wobbling form balanced.

"I'm aware."

With a sigh he set down the bottle. "Fine."

She clapped her hands. "Yay! Zell!" she called over her shoulder. "Put your shirt back on, Squall's taking us out for pancakes!" Quistis turned back to him and placed a platonic kiss to Squall's cheek. "How you spoil me."

Fujin laughed. "Whatever the lady wants—she gets!"

Quistis pointed at her and nodded enthusiastically. "You know it! Girl, you know how it is."

"Of course!" Fujin said, daintily placing her fingers along her chin as she innocently batted her eyes. "When you're the only girl in the group you get treated like a princess!"

That was when Quistis stopped smiling and placed a hand on her hip. "Princess?" she scoffed. "Let's get one thing straight, honey, I'm no princess. I am the motherfucking _queen._"

Fujin raised her hands high over her head and gave a loud squeal. "Get it!" Then the silver haired woman fell about in laughter when Royce practically threw himself over her legs so that he spanned over the length of the couch. "What're you doing, drunky?" she asked, gently patting him on the back.

"Using you as a pillow," came Royce's muffled reply. "Don't judge."

Squall gently tugged on Quistis's ponytail and hauled her out of the room. "Come along, Queen Pain in My Ass," he barked. "Zell! Hurry up." As they exited the motel they passed Irvine who was outside talking with Ward. "She demands pancakes," Squall announced.

Irvine chuckled. "I'll join you," he said.

The four of them walked up the street to the local twenty-four hour diner (Squall insisted they walk because he didn't feel like rearranging the van again to fit their drunk asses) and were seated immediately due to the lack of patrons.

Zell groaned and massaged his temples as they all filled in a booth and ordered. "Man," he mumbled. "What a night…"

Quistis pointedly swiped at the dark red streak of lipstick that was left on his cheek. "Busy, I see?" she smirked, nudging him in the ribs with her elbow.

"It's only for the photos, I promise," he laughed.

"It was a great show," Irvine said with a wide grin.

"Yeah," everyone agreed, falling into a comfortable silence as they relaxed and waited for their orders. Quistis leaned her head back, audibly moaning as she felt her tight neck muscles stretch.

Irvine scrolled through his phone and smiled. "Look what Selphie put up," he said, holding the phone to Squall. It was a picture of Selphie in front of her television, her mouth wide open in an excited howl as she pointed at the screen behind her, where a close up of Irvine growling into the mic was displayed. Beneath the photo the caption read: _That's my babe! Absolute Lore is on tour people! This is not a drill!_

Squall gave a quiet chuckle and sipped at his coffee. Obviously, it was Rinoa who had taken the quick snapshot since Irvine had mentioned that she was heading over to Selphie's to watch the live feed. Silently he wondered what she thought of the show.

"Hey, since our next show isn't for a couple of days, how about we go to that amusement park?" Zell piped up. "Apparently there's this new roller coaster that launched a few months ago. It's supposed to be _insane._"

Quistis immediately clapped in excitement. "Ooh! Yes, I vote yes!"

Squall sighed but gave a slight nod. "Monday might be a good day," he suggested. "We'll see if anyone else wants to go."

Irvine made a noise of agreement. "Yeah, we'll rest up tomorrow. Then we'll get our bodies beat to shit by rickety roller coasters on Monday. Then we'll play another insane and fan-fucking-tastic show on Tuesday. Then on Wednesday we pack up and drive off to…" He frowned. "What's the name of the city? It's not Timber…"

"It's close to Timber," Quistis said through a yawn.

"Squall, you're gonna hit the arcade with me at the park on Monday, right?" Zell asked, his lips spreading into a wide and excited grin.

"Of course."

Zell sat back and rubbed his palms together. "Man, that skee-ball machine is just calling my name!" Suddenly his crystal blue eyes glinted with mischief. "Are you gonna win a prize for Rinoa?"

Squall glared at the blonde man over the rim of the coffee mug. Despite his throat nearly closing in shock at the sudden jest, he managed to take a calm swallow. "Why? Are you?" he shot back.

"Nah…I figured to make up for being such an asshole right before you left that you'd wanna get her something nice."

Quistis stomped on Zell's foot beneath the table. "It's no use," she sighed. "I told him to get her flowers when she was at the hospital visiting her father, but did he listen? No. So what makes you think he'd listen _now?_"

Irvine gave Squall a sympathetic pat on the shoulder. "You are pretty god awful with women," he murmured. "Given your history…I have no idea how you snagged the attention of such a fine specimen of woman like Rinoa."

Squall frowned. "I feel I'm supposed to be insulted by that."

Quistis laughed and tossed back the rest of her coffee. "I don't know…" she mused. "I think you guys would look kinda cute together. Plus, you guys balance each other out. She's lively and outspoken, you're a quiet asshole but you speak your mind when it counts. Oh! _And_ she got you to dance! _I _haven't even been able to get you to do that—and you've been obliteratedly _wasted_ each time I tried!"

It was true. Even though Rinoa was certainly correct in the statement that he possessed full rhythm throughout his body thanks to drumming, he in no way shape or form danced willingly. A tiny, elated smile touched upon the corner of his lips as he thought about how her body molded to his his.

Squall spared part of his attention back to his band, they had gone on to another subject—this time about where Zell had received the kiss mark upon his cheek—and inwardly Squall wondered what Rinoa was thinking about at that moment.

Then the waitress appeared, and his attention was fully given to please the hunger within his empty stomach.

* * *

**"Misery" music and lyrics by Nonpoint**


	19. Chapter 19

**A/N: Hello readers! As always, thanks for reading/reviewing/new favorites/alerts!**

* * *

About a week had gone by and the bands found themselves in another hotel. Zell and Fujin had seemingly been graced by Lady Luck, hitting yet another casino and winning a great sum. Together they pooled their winnings and decided that Djin Theory and Absolute Lore would share three hotel rooms. The girls—naturally—had their own rooms, whereas the remaining three boys of each band shared the other two rooms.

At the moment, Fujin and Squall were in Djin Theory's room with Esteban. Hans had gone out with some of the guys from the other bands to try his own luck at the casinos. Zell had gone with Eli, Doomtrain's guitarist, to watch a fighting match that was currently being held in the casino.

Quistis entered Djin Theory's room and immediately zoned in on Squall who was watching a video with minimal interest on Esteban's phone. She tried not to laugh at Squall's bored expression. Her eyes then lifted to where Fujin sat behind him on the back rest of the couch, her eye also focused on the screen in Esteban's hand while she slowly sipped from what appeared to be a raspberry slushie.

"Hey Squall," Quistis called joyfully, swirling her tongue around the giant cherry flavored lollipop she had bought from the hotel's gift shop.

His stormy blue eyes lifted to meet hers and instantly pleaded, _Help me._

"Irvine's video-chatting with Selphie," Quistis said.

He frowned and shrugged his shoulders. "Good for him."

Quistis cocked her head and sent him a slight grin, snagging his interest. "She's having a girl's night," she added.

Squall fluidly stood to his feet, causing Fujin to nearly fall forward with a surprised yelp. Without a word Squall left the hotel room and walked down the hall to reach the other room that was reserved for the remaining three members of Absolute Lore. Rather than pulling out his key card, he simply knocked on the door and was instantly greeted with Irvine's grinning face.

"Just in time," he said quietly, waving him in.

"Is that Squall?"

Irvine shut the door after Squall walked through. "Yep." He led Squall to the laptop where he was greeted with a large window filled with Selphie's beaming face.

"Hi Squall!" Selphie chirped. "How's it going?"

He rested his hands against the table and gave her a slight nod. "Pretty good. We're playing at a theatre tomorrow night in Trabia, so that will be interesting."

"That's what Irvine was saying! He said you guys were playing at a lot theatres rather than standing room venues. That's pretty cool!" Selphie turned to look behind her and she giggled. "Oh, hang on, apparently someone wants to say hi although I can't imagine for the life of me understand why!"

She moved aside and soon the screen was filled with Rinoa's face.

Squall sucked in a breath as he saw that she was in a simple zebra-printed romper and her hair was piled on top of her head. The thin strap slowly fell over her shoulder and with an intense glare he watched her lithe fingers slowly pull it back into place. "Hey," he said with a grin, slowly sitting down in the chair that Irvine had been using.

Rinoa smiled at him and waved, her nose scrunching as she tried not to laugh. "Excuse my dress," she said. "I spilled soda on my pants so I figured I would just get into my pajamas already. We've been having a lot of sleepovers since you guys left. Apparently Selphie hates sleeping alone."

Irvine popped in for a quick moment and waved at her. "Sorry, my bad," he said. "If she doesn't have something to cuddle in her sleep then she won't sleep at all. Then she gets cranky and we all know that that's just unbearable."

"Hey!" came Selphie's voice from the background.

Rinoa laughed and turned her head off screen to say something to Selphie. "She's not _that _bad," she said. "Although she definitely likes to snuggle. It can get a bit smothering."

"Wait—really? You guys snuggle? Is there photographic evidence that you could possibly send me? For scientific reasons, of course." Irvine shot Rinoa a debonair grin while she rolled her eyes and produced a twisted smirk.

Squall rolled his eyes and shoved Irvine away. "Irvine has to go now."

"But…I wanna see Rinoa in her pajamas," Irvine whispered.

With a devilish smile the cowboy relished the heated look shot in his direction by Squall. He managed to smother the cackle that wanted to erupt and instead drank in the sight of Squall becoming possessive. Rinoa, on the other hand, had no idea about the comment or the bloodbath that might have ensued because she was looking away and listening to something that Selphie was saying.

Squall nearly rose from his seat and finally, Irvine did laugh out loud.

"I'm kidding, I'm kidding!" Irvine held up his hands in surrender. "Peace, bro, peace." His eyes glanced over to see where Rinoa still had her face turned away from the camera. "Man…you've fallen so hard you're on the other side of the world." He snapped his fingers into the shape of guns and sent Squall a quick wink before exiting the room.

Squall said nothing. What was there to say? He turned back in his seat and found Rinoa still looking away. There was no lie in the cowboy's words. Every day Squall found that Rinoa somehow managed to sneak her way into his thoughts. He would find himself reminiscing not just of that spectacular and heated night in his Jeep the night before he left…but he would think about the way her nose crinkled when she laughed, the way she got excited about food, and how passionate she would get when it came to her photography. His heartstrings would tug whenever he thought about the look of fear on her face when she found out her father was in the hospital, the emotion of disappointment when she discovered it was because of alcohol and the all too familiar sigh that revealed she was used to it.

He thought about that cabin in the woods he wanted to build when he would eventually retire…and the possibility that Rinoa might one day join him. After a moment she swivled in her seat and he was finally staring into those pixelated chocolate brown eyes of hers.

Her smile grew wide. "Hi," she said softly.

"Hey."

"Selphie's heading into the shower."

"Irvine just left."

Rinoa let out a sigh and her shoulders dropped a little. "So…it's just us then."

"Yeah."

Rinoa smiled, her lashes lowering and her fingers softly brushing over her bottom lip. "How's the tour going? You've played…what? Two shows since the first one in Dollet?"

"Yeah, we're leaving for Trabia tomorrow morning."

"That kinda sucks that you guys drove all the way out there only to have to be heading back this way again," Rinoa said, almost chuckling at the irony.

Squall smirked and nodded. "True…" He glanced down at the little clock at the bottom right corner of Irvine's laptop. _The thirteenth of May, _he thought. _Something is coming up…but what? _He paused. "How's your dad doing?"

Rinoa lifted her head and made a vague gesture with her hand. "Physically? Pretty good. He's finished up his antibiotics and the stitches are starting to dissolve on their own so…guess he's doing alright. I don't have to call him on a daily to remind him to take his pills anymore."

"What about his drinking?"

She groaned and sat back in her seat. "Unfortunately I don't think that will ever be solved," she muttered. "Can't help someone who doesn't feel that they need help. I'm supposed to meet him for dinner on Saturday so we'll see how that goes. Then there's that banquet that his branch holds every year…usually I'm his date so I make sure to keep an eye on him."

"I remember those," he said. "I think I only went once…maybe twice."

Rinoa perked up, instantly her mind racing to try and imagine Squall in his SEED uniform. "Oh yeah? How long ago?"

"I think it was right after I graduated school and was able to transition into the actual tactical training. So…I was eighteen?" He didn't remember much about that night…aside from the fact that he was more interested in hanging out by the buffet table than socializing.

"Who was your date?"

"My sister."

Rinoa grinned. "Bet she was pretty popular among the young boys."

Squall nodded and ran his fingers through his hair. "Yeah…yeah, quite a bit of the other cadets kept flocking to her, tried to get her to dance with them. I think she was twenty-nine at the time and going through that existential crisis about turning thirty, so she loved it. She danced with all of them."

Rinoa laughed loudly before she could stop herself. "Oh my god!" She could only imagine little teenage Squall watching his older sister waltzing across the dance floor with his fellow classmates. "Can I just say that I _adore_ you sister?"

"I still get invitations to the banquets even though I'm retired," Squall said. "I even get emails from some of those classmates that are still alive asking if I'm ever going to bring her back."

With a tight smile Rinoa watched Squall nonchalantly skirt over the comment. He said it so casually, as if it were no big deal that half of his graduating class could be dead. She had to remind herself that he was not just a musician—he was also a surviving child soldier. For a moment Rinoa felt a tug at her heart. What had he seen? What had he gone through? On the battlefield, in training, during foster care…how did he become the man that he is now? Deep down she wondered if he ever killed anyone, but, because of her first-hand experiences with her father, she knew that that was a question you _never _asked someone who had served in the military.

She thought back to that playful moment in his bed where her hands had brushed up the length of his arms. Even though it was dark and her vision was still blurry from sleep, she could have sworn she felt the tell-tale raised flesh of scars. _Tell me your story,_ she silently begged. _But not all at once. Tell it to me for years to come…_

"And I take it you haven't gone to the banquets since?" she asked.

"Nope. I might have gone right before I retired, I honestly can't remember. I normally get the invitations around Christmas."

Rinoa raised her arms and fussed with the messy bun atop her head. "Well…I do enjoy dressing up," she said coolly. "So if for whatever reason you feel like RSVP'ing to these banquets…I'll be your date."

Squall exhaled a short chuckle. "I would like to see you in evening wear."

"I look like a goddess, not even going to lie."

A vision of Rinoa in a form fitting white gown blazed across Squall's mind. He could just imagine her long black hair intricately piled upon her head so that the beautiful slope her neck was exposed. His throat tightened as he fantasized himself lacing a string of pearls around that slender neck of hers…his lips brushing over the sensitive nape before catching the necklace between clenched teeth. "Consider it done. If I get an invitation to this year's SEED Holiday Banquet you're coming with me."

Rinoa made a squeal of excitement and clapped her hands. "And watch, this will be the _only_ year that they don't send you one!"

"I'll still take you somewhere so you can wear an evening gown…even if it's a burger joint."

Rinoa tried her damndest to hide the bubbles of euphoria that threatened to explode from her. She felt the emotion floating through her skin, turning her cheeks red and daring to turn her into a giggling little girl. "Ok," was all she was able to say.

"How's your new studio?"

"It's good! When you get back I'll take you over and give you a tour. I've had a few photoshoots since you guys left so I've been keeping busy. The studio is definitely getting some business…mostly family friends or friends of friends."

Squall shrugged. "Usually how it starts."

"Pretty much. I emailed a few shots from your show at Strange Vision to Seifer the other day, he wanted to put them on his website since we kind of collaborated on a project."

Squall's tongue slowly ran over his teeth. "Did he tell you he put up the video already?"

"What? _No._" Rinoa scoffed and twisted her face in disgust. "That shithead."

"You're also in the video."

Rinoa's eyes widened as she stared at Squall's face upon the screen. "Uh…what?"

"He caught you dancing."

Rinoa's jaw dropped and she groaned, her forehead suddenly in her palms. "Oh dammit…" she muttered. "I bet I look like an absolute fool."

_Quite the opposite,_ Squall thought, his mind drifting back to the hypnotic way her hips swiveled and rolled…the same way they did when he had her pinned against the wall in the garage. His heart rate quickened at the vibrating memory. He'd already downloaded the video onto his phone and had already lost count of how many times he'd viewed it. He was spellbound by the fluidity of her motions, the liquid movement of her body when she thought no one was watching…

"I don't think you looked like a fool," he said.

Rinoa lifted her head, her lips pouting and her cheeks flushed with embarrassment. "Really? You're not just saying that?"

He shook his head. "No. Watch the video."

Behind her she heard the click of a lock and straightened up. "Selphie's out of the shower."

"Oh good. Have her watch it, she's in it too."

Rinoa smiled and blew him a quick kiss. "Alright, we will. I'll let you go, you're probably going to be up early to start your drive."

He nodded and gave her a grin that sent hot electric bolts across her skin. "Goodnight, Rinoa," he murmured.

"Goodnight, Squall."

* * *

**The next afternoon.**

After driving for a few hours Absolute Lore and Djin Theory stopped at a diner for lunch. The two bands staked claim of the biggest booth there and greedily chugged the terrible and weak coffee that was offered.

"Oh…wow, who is that?" Fujin asked, leaning over to point a clawed finger at the screen of Quistis' phone.

"Rinoa," Quistis answered, holding up her phone to show the picture of her and Rinoa at their last breakfast.

Hans made a throaty noise of intrigue and clicked his tongue as he craned his neck to take a peek. "Good lord," he rumbled. "She is ungodly beautiful. She seeing anyone?"

Quistis laughed and nonchalantly glanced over at Squall. Her eyes crossed over him for barely even a second, but it was long enough for her to catch the minute change in his expression. It went from solidly blank to a heated glare before shifting back to his usual stony frown. "She hasn't said so officially," Quistis said, her voice light and casual. "But I have a feeling that someone is holding her heart." She tucked the phone away and gave Hans a smoldering grin. "Or she is holding someone's," she added. "Either way…you have _no_ chance with her."

Hans gave a chuckle and tipped his head at her. "Point taken," he said, turning his attention back to his buffalo wings.

"She's our photographer," Zell said between bites of his sandwich.

"She took those photos of you that were just posted?" Fujin asked, her mouth dropping slightly in awe. "She is _amazing!_"

Zell nodded. "Oh, yes she is," he agreed, his voice muffled from the food. "Isn't she, Squall?"

Squall lifted the slightest gaze in Zell's direction. "Rinoa's work speaks for itself," he said.

"I'll say," Fujin, sang lightly, scrolling through her phone on Absolute Lore's webpage. "She makes you look almost human." With a sharp smile she held up her phone, a picture of Squall laughing displayed on the screen.

Quistis craned her neck. "I haven't seen that one—she must have _just_ put these up! When did she get that?" She swiped Fujin's phone and scrutinized the photograph. Squall was sitting on his throne, his legs spread with one palm resting along his thigh as he was hunched over slightly, his other hand reaching up and brushing strands of brown hair from his eyes. The smile on his face wasn't a large or wide one, but it was genuine and almost secretive. She tried to decipher what he was wearing, but since he normally wore the same outfit of a black or white fitted t-shirt and his black jeans, it was hard to pinpoint the exact day. "When was this?"

Squall only shrugged. "She's a sneaky one."

Zell found the picture on their website by using his own phone. "I'll say she is. I'm surprised she didn't even say anything after she snapped it." He grinned as he imagined Rinoa laughing manically to herself as she uploaded the picture as a surprise. "These comments though…" He let out a whistle. "Listen! _'Ohemgee. Look at that smile.' 'Ugh…take me now!' 'Hott.'_ Ooh! Squall, this chick wrote hot with _two _T's, you're stepping up in the world." He glanced up and saw Squall messing with his phone. "What're you doing?"

"Texting Rinoa."

_S.L: Thanks for that picture you uploaded. Now Zell won't shut up about it._

_R.H: =)_

Clearly he did not have to specify _which_ picture was in question. He smirked and shook his head.

_S.L: You're in big trouble._

Rinoa sent him a picture of her sticking out her tongue.

_R.H: Bite me._

_S.L: I will._

_R.H: Promises, promises._

"What are you saying to her?" Zell asked, his eyes still trained on his own phone as he swiped through some of the other shots that Rinoa had uploaded. "Quistis look at this one with you and that kid outside the venue—you sure made his night."

"Called her a brat," came Squall's reply.

Zell let out a chuckle. "What'd she say to that?"

Squall shrugged and slid the phone back into his pocket. "Told me to go fuck myself."

Quistis practically guffawed while Fujin clamped a hand over her lips. "Oh…I think I like this girl already," she said. "I must meet her."

"Oh, you will," Irvine laughed. "We're heading West so we should be hitting close to Deling anyway—so you should be meeting her before the tour is over."

"Fair warning, she will probably want to take your picture," said Squall.

Fujin brightly laughed and tapped her knuckles on the table's surface. "If she can work as much magic with my face as she can yours, she is more than welcome to take as many pictures as she desires!"

Squall's phone vibrated and he pulled it from his pocket to read Rinoa's text.

_R.H: It's one of my favorites of you. Had to upload it. I REGRET NOTHING MOTHERFUCKER!_

* * *

**Trabia, later that night.**

Irvine raised his arms. "Thank you Trabia, and _good night!_"

The crowd roared, deafening and thunderous, though Irvine could hardly hear anything over the pounding of his own heart and the vibrating ringing in his ears left over from the sinful plucks of Quistis's bass, the fierce strums of Zell's guitar, and the violent crashes of Squall's drums.

He laughed, his arms still upraised as if to embrace the crowd in a tight and sweaty hug. He turned to the rest of his bandmates, the grin still plastered on his face. "I think they love us," he shouted.

Quistis giggled and blew the crowd kisses as she practically glided across the floor. As the stage lights dimmed and the crowd continued to scream their excitement, the boys followed her off. After they stepped behind the stage the tour staff whisked by them to collect their equipment.

Fujin danced her way to Zell and slung her arms around his neck as she laughed. "Great show!" she cried. "Amazing!" She retracted her grip and laced her arm around Squall's. "So, Ward brought us a _shit ton_ of pizza if you guys are hungry."

As they walked Squall carefully removed the protective ear buds from his ear canals. Quickly he shoved them into his pocket and gave Fujin a pat to her hand. "What kind of pizza did Ward order?"

Quistis slipped her arms through Squall's other arm. "Did he order me pineapple pizza?"

"How can you eat that shit?" Squall grimaced. Like any normal human, he liked pizza and he liked pineapple. However, he could not stand them _together._

"What's wrong with pineapple on pizza?" Quistis snapped. "You've had that cake I made last year with the grilled pineapple on it—you said you liked it!"

"Yeah, but not with meat sauce."

"Uncultured swine," she huffed, slinging her blonde ponytail over her shoulder.

Hans chuckled as they all entered the back room, a slice of cheese pizza aimed and ready for his mouth. "Take a look at you, Leonhart," he said with a low whistle. "Two beautiful women on either arm!" He made an approving noise within his throat and took a large bite of his pizza. "Teach me your ways, oh great ladies man," he laughed, his words muffled through his chewed food.

Fujin tightened her grip around Squall's arm, pushing her breasts together so that her cleavage nearly reached the base of her throat. She batted her long and thick lashes at Hans and sent him a sultry and blood-red stained pout. "Oh, my dear Hans," she purred. "It's simple: send the fairer sex a sly and panty-drenching grin, and then ignore them the rest of the night."

Squall frowned. "I don't do that," he protested.

Fujin scoffed. "Who the fuck said I was talking about you?" she sneered. She sent Hans a smile. "No, seriously, Hans, just find a girl and send her a grin—Oh! And stroke your beard while you're at it."

Squall laughed as he watched Hans pensively run his fingers over his caramel color beard. "I'm not too sure about that," he smirked. "The way you're looking looks like you're looking at your next meal."

"Mmmm," Quistis moaned, running her tongue over her top lip. "Grilled lady bits. How scrumptious."

Hans burst out laughing before he could stop himself. "Oh lord," he chuckled. "That sound a bit rapey."

* * *

**Deling, later that week.**

Rinoa watched behind a fence made up her fingers. Her lips were upturned in a groaning wince as she waited for Selphie to press 'play.'

"Oh, come on," Selphie huffed. "It can't be _that_ bad. I'm sure you're just over-exaggerating the entire situation." Without hesitation she clicked the mouse and sat back so she could watch Absolute Lore's video on her television. "I finally have a day off where I can relax, do nothing, and maybe possibly watch my best friend and I act like dancing fools."

Rinoa growled and hastily dropped her hands into her lap. "_I'm_ the one that looks like a fool!" she said, having already watched the video a few times. "When the camera is on you your movements look sultry and very come hither. I look like a gazelle with two left feet."

Selphie blinked and slowly turned her head towards Rinoa.

"I mean _four_ left feet. Fuck off, you knew what I meant."

With a throaty chuckle Selphie focused her attention back to Absolute Lore's video. The video started off with a long and slow pan over the crowd that had crammed its way into Strange Vision. The camera captured the excited faces and the hypnotic and feverish energy that pulsated on screen. The first face that flashed across the screen was Irvine's, his eyes bright and wild as he growled into the mic: _"You made an addict out of me without even knowing I was a sucker for another dose of your…"_

Selphie squealed and clapped her hands as she watched. "Oh, come on!" she cried again. "Who cares if they caught you dancing? Just revel in the fact that you are _in_ a music video!" She shook her hips and tossed her hair over her shoulder as she continued to watch.

The camera fluidly pounced from Irvine's sweat-sheened face to Zell thrashing his head in time to Squall's chaotic beats. It smoothed over Quistis, whose movements appeared to be so sensual and liquid against her shining purple Ibanez. Her aquamarine eyes flirted over the crowd and she shyly lowered her thick lashes as she continued to pluck the chords.

"Hey! There's me!" Selphie raised her arms as she watched herself upon the screen. She giggled as she watched herself roll her hips and run her fingers over her throat as she let the music devour her.

Rinoa grinned as she watched Selphie all but mimic her own movements from the screen. "Awwww yeah!" she shouted, standing to her feet and and bouncing upon the couch cushions. "Shake that ass girl!"

Selphie let out an excited yell and twirled around. She snapped her vision back to the screen and paused. "Shit—is that you?" She turned back to Rinoa with her mouth dropped open in a silent howl. Her finger pointed to the screen and she giggled. "Look at you!"

Suddenly Selphie gasped and immediately turned large green eyes to Rinoa. "Wasn't Squall the one who told you about this?"

Rinoa tucked a strand of black behind her ear. "Um…yeah?"

An impish grin crept onto Selphie's face and she released a giggle that was borderline maniacal. "So then…he watched those hips of yours sway back and forth." Her green eyes sparkled when she saw Rinoa suck in a surprised breath. "He watched those movements of yours, those undulating rolls of your hips and almost serpentine wave of your spine…" She tapped her chin for a moment as she pretended to contemplate about the situation. "I wonder…how many times do you think he's watched this?"

Rinoa didn't respond—with words. Instead she kicked up one of the throw pillows from Selphie's couch (the bright and sunny yellow ruffled one with the lime green heart on the upper right corner) and chucked it into the brunette's direction, nearly knocking her to the ground in shock.

After regaining her stance, Selphie only giggled even harder and scooped up the pillow to her chest. "He's probably like, 'Oh! Oh baby! Roll them hips!'"

Rinoa blushed but settled herself back onto the couch, her lips curved into a tight smirk as she watched Selphie turn back towards the television and watch the rest of the video. While the brunette was fixated on the screen, Rinoa pulled out her phone and scrolled through her messages to Squall from the other day.

_R.H: I watched the video. OMG! _

_S.L: Ha_

_R.H: I'm so embarrassed. I love to dance but I'm not a fan of having photographic evidence!_

_S.L: You prefer to be behind the lens, don't you?_

_R.H: Indeed. I don't really care to be in front of the camera._

_S.L: Shame. The camera seemed to enjoy you._

_R.H: I'm gonna get Seifer for this._

_S.L: Really, because I want to thank him._

_R.H: What for?_

_S.L: For giving me something to look at every night._

Rinoa stole a quick glance at Selphie to be sure that her attention was still on Absolute Lore's video. Seeing that it was obvious that Selphie's attention was definitely on the television, Rinoa practically caved in on herself with quiet, girlish giggles.

_R.H: Every night, huh?_

_S.L: I need something to sate me until I'm back in Deling._

* * *

**May 29**

Rinoa peered at her father over the rim of her coffee mug. Today was the day. Twenty-ninth of May. The twenty year anniversary of Julia's death. Caraway was calmly cutting his fork into his tall stack of Belgian waffles. The morning had started off normal enough, he arrived at her apartment just before nine and together they drove to the pancake house closest to Deling Memorial Garden. The drive was quiet yet somewhat comfortable.

Rinoa had noticed that Caraway had put on his wedding band, it was something he did only on her anniversary. While Rinoa was in high school, Caraway had placed Julia's wedding band on a thin chain and Rinoa wore it every day. When she left for college she reluctantly gave it back to him. She knew that she would be traveling constantly and did not want to run the risk of losing it. She silently wondered when would be a good time to ask for it back.

"How are your pancakes?" Caraway asked, spearing a wedge of his waffles onto the fork.

"Hm? Oh. Delicious, of course, thanks." She reached over and took hold of the syrup. "Your waffles?"

Caraway smiled, tight-lipped, as he chewed. "How's that new studio of yours going? Catching plenty of clients yet?"

"Oh yes! I've already done a few senior portraits, Zone and I did an engagement shoot, and I have a maternity shoot booked for June—I'm pretty excited about that, she's thinking of doing a little rock-a-billy theme."

"I'm sure that will be interesting."

The small talk continued as it always did…quick, to the point, and skirting over the real issue. Rinoa wanted to ask him so many things, wanted to delve deep into her father's mind to find the true beginning of his drinking. For so long she thought it was because of her mother's death but over the last few years she started to notice that he never drank on her anniversary. Not one drop.

Her eyes dropped down to look at the rivers of syrup drizzled along her pancakes. She was no psychologist, knew nothing about the science of dissecting a person's mind and subconscious to discover what really made them tick…but she couldn't help but wonder. She thought about the Lieutenant General Martine and his haunted and hollow eyes, the eyes like her father's. What had Martine seen on the battlefield? What had her father seen?

Another pair of eyes broke into her thoughts, these ones a pair of thundering and stormy blue gray that easily stopped her in her tracks and took hold of her breath.

"Hey, Caraway?"

He turned his attention from the waitress refilling his coffee mug back to his daughter. "Yes?"

"Do you ever think about dating again?" Rinoa asked. "I mean, mom's been…gone…for twenty years and you still have that huge house you bought for her…" She stirred her coffee slowly. "You ever think of filling it back up?"

Caraway chuckled. "Well I had hoped to leave it to you to _fill it up_ with plenty of fat grandchildren," he said. "There's still plenty of time for that, of course."

Rinoa smirked and went back to her pancakes. "But seriously," she pressed. "Have you?"

He only shrugged and continued to cut into his waffles. "The thought has crossed my mind," he admitted. "Albeit fleetingly, but it has. I'm much too busy with work so I can't focus on dating too much at the moment. Perhaps when I retire."

"Understandable," Rinoa said.

"You want a stepmother that badly?" he asked with a soft laugh. Then his smile faltered and he looked horrified. "Oh no…please don't tell me you want a new brother or sister?" He winced. "I'm pretty sure my equipment is no longer capable of that."

Rinoa found herself lost in an easy and light-hearted giggle and she waved her hand. "Ew!" she groaned. "I don't want to hear about your…_equipment_ and no! I just…I just want you to be happy." She noticed the minute change in her father's expression and she timidly pressed her lips together. "Caraway," she murmured. "_Are_ you happy?"

"Are you?" he countered.

"Well…yeah. I'm back home, my career is taking off and I'm doing what I love…" _I'm falling head first for the most amazing and talented guy ever… _"Yeah," she said with a grin. "I am pretty happy with my life."

Caraway smiled fully and he lifted his coffee mug in a toast. "If my child is happy then I am happy," he said. "Such is the destiny of parents—to ensure that our children have a happy life." He took a hearty sip and set down his mug. "It was something your mother always wanted. We waited years before having children even though she said her clock was ticking like a time bomb a year after we married." He quietly laughed to himself as he remembered his and Julia's many conversations about children. "We agreed that we would wait until I was far along enough in my promotions in the military to where I would not be away from home all the time. Julia didn't want me to miss a moment…our baby's first steps, first words, first day of school, her first dance…all that."

It was the cruel twist of life that made it so that it was Julia herself who would be the one to miss nearly everything. Oh Life…it sure had a funny way of doing things. Rinoa took a few more bites of her pancakes. "When you do start dating again…how would you know that it is true? That it really is love?"

"Why…only if she receives your approval," Caraway said with a large grin. "No one will ever measure up to your mother, understand that, but I can't imagine ever marrying someone that my daughter did not like."

Suddenly he started laughing and quickly waved his hands to dismiss the subject. "But why are we even talking about this? I've not even come close to asking for another woman's phone number yet alone her hand in marriage!" He reached to his side and pulled up the large and sparkling vase filled black calla lilies and blue irises. "Now, hurry up and finish your pancakes. I'm sure Mom is missing her flowers."

* * *

A few days passed and Rinoa was coming out of her shower when she heard her phone buzzing loudly, desperately calling for her attention. "I'm coming, I'm coming!" she cried to no one in particular, hooking the dripping strands of black over her shoulder as she hurried into her bedroom.

She scooped up the contraption and instantly noticed that she received a text from Squall. Rinoa's eyes widened and her lips softened into a shy and warm smile. She could feel her heart swell and pound within her chest. Almost wistfully her fingers rose to her lips and she let out a gentle chuckle.

_S.L: June 23__rd__. We're coming to play at The Rough Divide._

The Rough Divide was a venue deep in the heart of Deling.

A swathe of heat enveloped Rinoa's flesh and she felt her heart race.

Squall was coming home.


	20. Chapter 20

**June 22, the middle of the night.**

With a groan Rinoa rubbed at her eyes. _What…what is that?_ She lifted up onto her elbows and squinted over to the red numbers of the clock that was nestled upon the dresser across from her. It was a little after one in the morning…and someone was knocking on her door?

Rinoa rolled out of her sheets and quietly made her way into the living room. The knock wasn't frantic or hurried, it was more so casual and calm yet loud so as to capture her attention. She lifted up onto her toes and took a glimpse through the peephole.

Her breath caught in her throat when she took sight of the profile on the other side.

Rinoa pulled open the door. Her eyes roamed over the brown hair that was rumpled, the black jacket that was wrinkled from being confined in a small space, and stormy eyes that were still seemingly struggling to stay open. The smile he offered her was small, subtle, and incredibly heart warming.

"Squall? What…when…what's going on?"

He straightened himself up from the wall and placed a hand on the door's threshold. "Sorry," he said quietly, his voice thick and low and sending heated vibrations straight to her. "I would have called but…" He held up his other hand that held his phone. "Battery died."

"Oh, no, it's…it's fine. Come in." Rinoa stifled a yawn and stepped back so Squall had room to enter. When he crossed over the threshold with his bag she gently closed the door and turned the lock. "I thought you were coming back tomorrow."

He tossed his phone onto the coffee table and turned to face her. "That was the plan," he told her, running his hands through his hair. It had only been about two months, but Rinoa saw that it was definitely longer than it had been, just now reaching past his shoulders. "Apparently Zell has a lead foot and we got in earlier than we thought." He sent her a slanted grin that sent bolts of light through her veins that started from her toes up to the top of her skull. "Thought I'd surprise you."

Rinoa pressed her lips together and shyly chuckled. "Consider me surprised," she said.

"Sorry," he said again. "I know I should have called but apparently my phone wasn't plugged in."

"It's ok, really," Rinoa assured. "I was just expecting you tomorrow afternoon-ish." Silently she thanked herself for throwing in a load of laundry so that she would have clean clothes ready to go in the morning. "Or…today. Later today I mean."

Squall cocked his head as he took in the sight of her. Her hair was disheveled, strands falling out of the messy topknot that crowned her head. The over-sized shirt hung off of one shoulder, exposing the elegant slope and dip of her clavicle. Her black sleep shorts barely reached to the tops of her thighs and Squall very much enjoyed the tantalizing view of her bare legs.

"Is…that my shirt?" he asked, taking notice of the intricate and black thorny trim that hung just over her left breast.

Rinoa's eyes widened as she looked down. _Oh, goddammit,_ she thought. Usually when a woman was wearing a man's shirt it was because it belonged to her boyfriend or significant other…not the guy she had sex with _once_—in a car—before he went off on tour. "Uh…no?"

He grinned and took a step towards her. "Are you sure about that?"

"I don't know what you're talking about," she said, shaking her head as she stepped backwards. "I…this is—no, nope. Not yours."

He stepped closer and closer, his grin smoldering. "Really? Because it looks like one of mine."

Rinoa shrugged her shoulders. "Nope. Can't be." A small gasp came from her when she found that she had backed up enough for her back to meet up with the wall. "Must be your imagination," she managed to say with a straight face as he leaned forward, his arms creating a barricade around her as his palms flattened against the wall's surface.

"Even though my imagination is quite vivid, I distinctly remember leaving my shirt in my car." His eyes sparked with teasing mischief and his lips pulled back into a charming grin. "Somewhere parked beneath the stars, maybe?"

That caused Rinoa to run the tip of her tongue over her lips at the burning memory. "Maybe," she repeated.

Squall ran the back of his fingers over the curve of her shoulder and then down the shirt's sleeve. "It looks better on you anyway," he murmured. His fingertips thrummed over the pulse point of her wrist for a brief moment before her hand lifted up, their fingers interlocking.

He wanted to kiss her, wanted to tilt her head back and capture that bottom lip she was currently nibbling on, but he was just so damn _exhausted_. He leaned in, but rather than leaning in towards her face, he veered a bit to the right, his forehead resting on the wall.

Rinoa softly laughed and wrapped her arms around his waist. "Ok sleepyhead," she smiled. "I think it's time you get to bed."

He made a small groan of protest but pulled himself away from the wall so he could walk. "Not the couch," he grunted, his words growing thicker with sleep by the second. "Can I sleep next to you in your bed tonight?"

She rolled her eyes as she stepped behind him and started pushing him towards her room. As if she would make him sleep on the couch again. That only happened once, and the circumstances then was _much_ different than what they were currently. "Of course."

With her hands pressed against the small of his back, she shoved him into her room, pausing for a moment so he could remove his shoes. She walked around him and slid beneath the burgundy comforter. With an appreciative smile she watched him peel his shirt off over his head. Again his chest was concealed by a tight fitting black undershirt. Her heart skipped a beat when his hands went to his belt.

"Man, I haven't slept in an actual bed since the night before I left," he grumbled, stepping out of the puddle of his black jeans and practically flopping down onto the mattress. His arm sloppily arched over Rinoa's body and possessively pulled her against him so her back was flush against his chest. "Even when we stayed at a hotel I somehow still got stuck with the couch. I don't like tour buses either."

Rinoa gave him a sympathetic pat on the hand and took a deep breath. "Aww, poor baby," she cooed mockingly. "Don't worry, my bed is always open for you." When he didn't respond she glanced over her shoulder, her lips pressing together to prevent herself from squealing at the adorable view she received of a sleeping Squall.

* * *

**The next morning, June 23rd**

Squall groaned, frowning so that his eyebrows furrowed together. His fingers curled into the fabric of the pillow beside him. The frown softened and he slowly opened his eyes, momentarily confused at the feeling of fabric rather than flesh. When his eyes opened fully he noticed that he was alone. Carefully he sat up so the comforter pooled around his waist. Half-awake he scanned the insides of the room.

He hadn't seen Rinoa's bedroom before but looking around he knew that it was exactly where he was. The Queen Ann dresser directly across from her bed was covered with her Canon Rebel and a few various telephoto lenses. Beside the dresser was a tall cabinet of some kind that he assumed—due to the bright blue strap that dangled from an open drawer—held more of her camera parts and accessories.

Looking to his left at her night stand, he came across a photograph of a woman in her thirties holding a young girl who looked to be no older than three. The woman was beautiful. Her inky black hair was slung over one shoulder, her blood red lips were open in a wide and bright smile as she adoringly looked at the girl in her arms. The child was staring straight into the camera with large brown eyes surrounded by impossibly thick black lashes. Her little mouth was open in a slight cross between awe and confusion.

Squall smiled at the photograph. He assumed that it was probably the first time that Rinoa had taken notice of a camera in front of her. Even as a small child she was caught in fascination and wonder over the contraption.

A small noise caught his attention and he turned to see Rinoa walk through her doorway with two mugs in her grasp. When she saw that he was awake she sent him a glittering smile. "Morning," she said.

"Good morning," he responded, graciously taking the mug she offered him.

"I'd ask how you slept but you were out like a baby before your head even hit the pillow." She sat beside him and carefully cupped her coffee between her hands as she sipped.

Squall took a long swallow. "Well, I was in a bed with a beautiful woman after being on a tour bus cot next to _Irvine._ Yeah, I was slightly comfortable." He let his eyes roam over her as he took another drink. She was still wearing his shirt and it was a sight that made him happier than he thought he would be. She looked amazing in it. Granted, she would look just as stunning in a potato sack, but that was beside the point.

"How has your tour been going?" she asked, breaking him out of the trance her exposed legs had cast on him. "Quistis has been sending me some pictures to put up on your page. I can't wait to take some shots of you guys tonight at The Rough Divide."

Squall finished his coffee and gently placed the mug onto the nightstand. "You're not Absolute Lore's photographer tonight," he said. "You're our guest."

Rinoa laughed and playfully nudged his leg with her foot. "You honestly think that I'm going anywhere without my camera? Come on Squall, you should know me better than that."

"Yeah, I think I know you pretty well by now," he smirked.

_And I don't know shit about you…_ Rinoa thought. _Well, that's going to change __**now.**_

Squall twisted his spine and carefully picked up the picture frame from the nightstand. "Your mom?" he asked.

Rinoa's eyes peeked over the rim of her mug. "Yeah," she answered, swallowing the rest of her coffee and bending over the side of her bed to place the mug onto the ground. "I think that was around Christmas time. My mom loved doing those Christmas pictures…you know, the ones where you could put a little update on the back so you could send them to the rest of the family." Since the Heartilly/Caraways didn't have much of a family, the Christmas cards mostly went to Julia's coworkers and Caraway's military brethren.

"You look just like her."

"Thanks." She smiled and ran the back of her hands over her eyes. "My mom…she could have been a model. She was _breath taking._"

"Why didn't she?"

Rinoa shrugged. "Caraway said something about how she didn't want to make a living on her looks alone, especially since looks fade over time. She was this pretty well known lounge singer at the Deling Hotel, did I ever tell you that?"

Squall paused. "You mean the hotel that we picked up your father from?"

"Yeah…" Rinoa said with a wince. Quickly she shook her head and tried to turn the subject on him. "What was _your_ mother like?" she asked. He had never mentioned her before…was she even around anymore? Suddenly she lectured herself, told herself that she shouldn't have asked. He was in foster care before his sister was able to take custody…obviously his mother was not in the picture.

Squall just shrugged and leaned back against the headboard. "I don't remember," he told her. "She died when I was three."

Rinoa's eyes widened and her fingers flew to her mouth. "Oh…oh, shit, I am so sorry," she whispered. "What happened?" She continued to mentally kick herself. _Maybe __**this**__ is why I don't know much about him!_

"She was sick," he said. "That's all I really know." He shifted his body along the bed so that his head lay in Rinoa's lap, his arms wrapping around her thighs. His eyes closed as he relished how warm her naked skin felt against his cheek.

"What about your dad?"

Another shrug. "Never knew him," he murmured against her flesh. "My sister said that he was someone in the military. My parents never married so I don't even know his name."

"Not even his name," Rinoa whispered. "That must have been rough, especially when you were in foster care…I'm sorry, I don't mean to bring up any sad memories."

Squall shook his head, the slight movement sending shocks up Rinoa's spine since his head was so…close to that most sensitive area of hers that had been missing him. "It's alright, it's something we'd be talking about eventually anyway. My sister is eleven years older than me, so when we were put into foster care we got separated." At the pout that came upon Rinoa's face he ran his palm over her thigh, gave that tender and enticing flesh a squeeze. "It wasn't too bad at first. The foster homes we were put into were close to each other." Slowly his brows frowned at the memories. "Ellone always promised that once she turned eighteen she would come for me."

Rinoa brushed his hair with her fingers. "And she did, since you told me that she raised you?"

"Yeah…" He turned so that he lay the back of his head in Rinoa's lap, his eyes closing as she continued to stroke his hair. "It took forever to happen though. Even though she was of age she was barely able to support herself and the courts decided she wasn't fit to take care of a child. So I got moved from foster home to foster home for a few years. I didn't start living with her until right before my twelfth birthday."

Rinoa grimaced. "How many did you live in?"

Squall thought for a moment, his eyes opening as he tried to remember the names of his foster parents. He couldn't remember the names of the first two, simply because he was so young at the time. Mostly he remembered the last one… "Four, I think."

Rinoa saw the look of disgust on Squall's face and she gently toyed with the black plug in his ear lobe. "We don't have to keep talking about it," she said softly.

"I don't understand how those two were even allowed to be foster parents." He said it so softly, so lowly that Rinoa wasn't sure if he even meant for her to hear it. She noticed a small change in his expression, his eyes suddenly darkening as he stared out across the room. It was as if a shroud washed over him, the dark shadows of his past.

Rinoa brushed his cheek with the back of her fingers, snapping him back to the present, bringing him back to the little world only her bed existed in. His eyes turned towards her and he offered her a slight smile. "Did you want to grab breakfast?" he asked. "I'm getting hungry."

Before she could answer her stomach growled, earning a soft chuckle from him. "All I have is cereal," she sighed. "Anything in particular you're craving?"

His eyes flashed for a moment, suddenly filled with a crackling heat that resonated from his body and into hers. His jaw, sprinkled with rough stubble of a five o' clock shadow, set tightly as his heated eyes settled onto her lips. "Yes," he answered, his voice a hoarse whisper. His eyes drew back up to meet hers. "You could say I'm…_famished._"

Rinoa practically swallowed her tongue.

Squall rolled back onto his stomach, his arms creating a barricade around her waist as he trapped her against the headboard. Slowly he leaned his mouth towards hers, but rather than capturing her lips he lowered his head to suckle along her exposed collarbone.

Rinoa felt her eyelids flutter and her heart quicken at the sensation. She stifled a moan, her teeth biting into her lower lip as Squall continued to nurse her collarbone, his tongue hotly running over her flesh. He moved forward, pressing her further into the headboard as his hand slipped beneath the shirt she wore.

With her strangled moans inspiring him to continue, his palm pressed against her rib cage, traipsing upwards to capture her breast. His eyes closed as he felt her bare skin, felt her nipple harden into a point against his palm.

Rinoa's mouth dropped open, gasping and squirming against him. It had only been a few weeks—_seven_, she counted—since they had been together, and yet her body burned for him and ached for him like a strong addiction.

Just with that touch alone, that soft kiss to her clavicle followed shortly after with that heated lick of that tongue of his, it was enough to make her quiver. The noises that came out of her…they were hardly human, and they were simply from his touch? For a moment she was unsure how her body was going to react to when they started to go further. It was like her body had been going through withdrawals without her knowledge and the severity of it wasn't apparent to her until he was finally right in front of her.

Now that he was here, his body begging to be entwined with hers, it was almost overwhelming.

He pulled his hand from beneath the shirt and he gripped her shoulders, pulled her to lay beneath him as he moved his lips along her jaw. "I have been _starving_," he groaned, pushing his groin in between her legs.

On instinct her legs opened up and wrapped around his hips. "Me too," she whispered, her hands clutching his jaw and bringing his lips up to hers. "Oh fuck…me too." With his lips finally touching hers, she released a loud moan and rolled her hips against him.

With just that simple movement he was nearly reduced to a shaking, trembling little juvenile who had just discovered his first hard on. _What you do to me,_ he thought to her. "Do you have any condoms?" he asked breathlessly.

Rinoa stopped and pulled her mouth away from him. "Fuck," she said, dropping her head into her pillows. "No…I don't."

Squall chuckled at the annoyed aggravation upon her face. Though, of course, he shared her disappointment, he wasn't going to lecture her on her lack of safe sex materials. After all, he hardly ever carried condoms on his person. The only time he had recently was when he picked her up the night before he left. "And I take it you're not on the pill either."

Rinoa lifted her head and narrowed her eyes at him. "I don't do bareback," she said through her teeth.

He couldn't help but laugh at the crude term. "Yes, dear," he said, grinding his pelvis into her just to hear her gasp. "Well…I have condoms at my apartment."

"Mmmm, sounds promising." She chuckled and ran the tip her finger between her lips. With a grin she bit her teeth down and lifted her hips to meet him.

Squall rose up off of the bed and reached for his pants. "Get dressed. We'll go to the grocery store and I'll make you a breakfast feast…"

Rinoa sat up and clapped her hands together.

"…and then I'll make a feast out of _you._"

Rinoa froze.

* * *

Even in the grocery Squall could still feel his heart racing, could still feel his chest tightening. Rinoa had taken a quick shower before they left and every time she waltzed by him in the aisle he caught the fragrance of her peach scented shampoo. She practically spun around on her toes and danced around him. He couldn't help but smirk to himself as he watched her peruse through the vegetable stands. As she bent over to reach for a certain item her denim skirt rose just a fraction. The stretch caused Squall to lift his brow. Her skirt was long enough to cover the essentials, but short enough to ensnare his devoted attention. Her long legs were bare, her flesh satiny and silently asking him to touch.

He swallowed, imagining how they would feel wrapped around his head.

She picked up a small bushel of cilantro and softly thumbed through it. "So…" she purred. "What're you gonna make me for breakfast?" With a quick bat of her lashes she spun around him and dropped the cilantro into the cart.

"Whatever you want."

Rinoa made her way over to the fruit tables, her fingers caressing over a plastic carton filled with bright red strawberries. "Well…what do _you _want to eat?" she asked. Before he could answer she slowly picked up a ripe and perfectly round peach. "I mean…besides me, of course." She swirled her nail over the pointed bottom of the peach, her pretty little lips curved into a toothy grin.

Squall swallowed. He felt his heart leap into the base of his throat in surprise. This girl was going to be the death of him. "Don't get me started," he warned softly.

She simply brought the peach close to her lips, a pink tongue darting out to flick against the fruit before she carefully placed it into the cart. "I think we've gone beyond getting _started_," she said. "Besides I can't help it, I've missed you." Rinoa turned away quickly and headed towards the meat aisle. "Let's get bacon!" she cried.

* * *

Rinoa watched as Squall skillfully sliced through a few peppers. She pressed her lips together and toyed with the coffee mug he had handed to her earlier. She didn't even know what he was making, could only smell the familiar and heavenly aroma of bacon, could hear the sizzling and pop of the fat against the grill.

She watched him make his way around the kitchen, watched as he easily tossed bits and pieces of what they had bought at the grocery store into a pan on the stove. Slowly she stirred her coffee as she let her eyes wander down the back of his body.

_I told him I missed him,_ she thought. It wasn't a lie…but she didn't exactly want to spill her guts to him. For the short time that she had known him before he left for tour she had spent nearly every day with him, she had gotten so used to his physical presence that it was exceedingly weird to have him _not_ there.

_Well…he missed me too,_ she argued to herself. _He said that he watched the video of me dancing nearly every night._ She sucked on her bottom lip. _Yeah…for material for his spank bank. _Rinoa shook her head. _No…no, it had to be more than that. _Her eyes glanced over the surface of the center island and landed on the small pile of envelopes off to the side. "Collected your mail last night?" she asked, curiously poking the pile.

Squall looked over his shoulder and made a small noise within his throat. "No, that must have been my sister. I didn't even come inside when I got dropped off. I just got into my Jeep and went to see you."

His shoulders jerked momentarily, as if he said something more than he had wished. Rinoa didn't say anything, just continued sipping her coffee and trying not to squeal like the little school girl she felt like she was due to his accidental admission. She tightly pressed her lips together and glanced down, completely missing the slight blush that crept along the back of his neck.

After a moment he turned around and cleared his throat. "Breakfast is served," he said, settling a plate before her.

"Oh, wow," she whispered, staring down at the breakfast burrito that awaited her. "This looks amazing!" She waited for him to sit beside her before digging in. "Delicious," she said.

The rest of their breakfast went calmly, she filled him in about the photography projects she was currently working on and how every time she had seen Caraway he was sober, but she has noticed bottles in his recycling canister. He told her about how Zell stage dived during Djin Theory's set back in Trabia, which then resulted in his shirt becoming ripped from his back.

"I think he enjoyed it," Squall said. "He doesn't show off his body too much while we're playing so a lot of our fans haven't seen him shirtless unless they were backstage…a lot of jaws dropped that night."

Rinoa laughed. "I think I did see something about that…" She went on to tell him about a picture she saw that had tagged Absolute Lore—a picture of a girl with her brown eyes bugged out and mouth dropped open in a hilarious howl—with the caption of _My face when I see that #zdinchtdincht of #ALofficial is completely RIPPED as fuck O.O_

"Yeah…he became pretty popular after that."

"I hadn't realized his tattoo had gone that far down," Rinoa said, running her finger down the length of her belly. "I thought that it might have stopped around his chest or something."

"It started off with just his face," Squall said. "When he got it in Centra. Then he kept adding on and adding on. I think he plans on moving it down onto his arms all the way to his fingers."

"On one side?"

"On one side."

Rinoa lifted her brows. "He's going for a Two-Face look?" She dabbed a napkin at her lips and stood to her feet. "That was _wonderful_," she purred. "Thank you. One of these days I'm going to have you teach me how to cook." She scooped up the empty plates and hurried to the sink, her hands reaching up for the faucet to immediately start scrubbing away.

Squall came up behind her, his left arm lacing around her waist as his lips gently came down upon the slope of her shoulder. "What is it with you always trying to clean?" he murmured.

"Why are you always trying to stop me?" she giggled, wriggling her hips so that she purposefully swayed the curve of her ass against the front of his jeans. At the feel of something hard and rigid, she paused, her hands gripping the plate beneath the stream water.

"I'll clean later," he insisted, his tongue flicking over her ear lobe.

Rinoa's eyes rolled into the back of her head and she felt her entire body shiver as his tongue glided lower down her throat. Her teeth bit down into her bottom lip as she tried to suppress a moan. "Mr. Leonhart," she whispered. "I'm just trying to help."

Squall abruptly turned her around, his breath catching as her arms slipped around his neck and her fingers threaded into his hair. His lips crashed down onto hers and he pulled her tightly against him. One hand slipped past her and shut off the water. "Don't want your help," he muttered around her tongue. "Just you."

Oh, how he missed the way her body aligned with his, the way her soft lips felt when they were being bitten by his teeth. _I've missed you,_ he thought, thinking to her the same words she had spoken when they were in the grocery store.

His hands roamed over her spine, tugged at the roots of her glorious black hair, pressed against the small of her back before lowering to grasp her rear and yank her upwards.

With a surprised gasp Rinoa found herself wrapped around him, her legs encircling his waist as she felt him move them away from the sink. She tightened her grip, thrust her hips into him as she hastily deepened the kiss. She half expected him to drop her onto his large and patiently waiting King-sized bed but she paused in momentary confusion when she found herself settled on something cool to the burning heat of her flesh.

With himself nestled neatly between her legs, he had set her upon the kitchen center island.

His fingertips paused just below the hem of her skirt. "May I?" He lifted his eyes so they locked with hers, the stormy blue color practically thundering with lust as he watched the dip beneath her throat deepen with a hitched breath.

"Yes," she managed to whisper. "Yes, please."

He leaned in closer, lips not quite touching, watching her close her eyes in anticipation while her tongue poked out between her teeth. He caught sight of her hands clenching the edge of the counter as his fingers slowly slid beneath the thick denim material of her skirt, his touch leaving streaks of tingling fire across her flesh. His fingers found their target and hooked around the lacy band of her panties. His lips curved into a smirk. "You wore panties this time."

Rinoa smiled, her eyes still closed and her head tilting backwards slightly. "Different circumstances," was all she said.

His lips found her throat, placing soft and tortuously slow kisses along the sensitive flesh, his fingers tugging her panties downward. She lifted her hips slightly so he could drag the flimsy fabric over her thighs. His lips broke away from her then, so he could watch himself slide the panties down her legs before dropping them to the ground. Squall looked back up at her, his eyes glinting with primal hunger.

Rinoa felt her breath quicken and a soft, strangled groan vibrated within her throat as she watched his face lower between her legs. His eyes lowered for a moment, his tongue running between his teeth in an almost wild and feral manner.

The look in his eyes, the possessive grip he placed upon the inside of her thighs, they were enough to turn her entire body into a mass of hot, quivering liquid. "Ohmygod," she whispered.

His hands firmly gripped her thighs and spread them apart. Positioning her so that she leaned backwards, her elbows propped up against the surface of the center island, he leaned forward. With one long lick of his tongue he tasted her, causing her to gasp and throw her head back. As he so intimately kissed her, her thighs clenched and reflexively tried to close. His hands kept her spread, open and ready for his hot and capable tongue.

As her pelvis shook and her legs threatened to close around Squall's neck, her hands shot out and thrust into his hair, her fingernails raking over his scalp as she threw her head back and moaned. She lowered herself completely onto her back, her fingers tugging at his hair.

With one hand still pressed against the inside of her thigh, he snaked the other hand up the length of her body, his fingers slipping beneath her shirt and bra to fondle her breast. Feeling her thighs quake and hearing her voice hit those high octaves, he could feel his dick grow increasingly harder.

He had to have her.

Without warning he pulled that tantalizing tongue away from her.

Rinoa's eyes shot open and tried to sit up, her hands raising up as fists over her breasts. Before she could utter a word Squall was between her legs again, this time with a condom in his hands. She smirked and hastily her lithe fingers worked his belt buckle. The rasp of his zipper echoed in her ears and suddenly a wave of pleasure washed over her.

His jeans and boxers dropped down around his ankles and he rolled the condom on. Rinoa wrapped her legs around his hips and drew him into her, her jaw dropping down in a loud moan as she felt every inch.

"Fuck," he growled between clenched teeth. His fingers clutched the back of her head, tugging at her roots so her head fell back to expose the lovely curve of her throat. As he pounded into her his lips trailed so sweetly over her tingling flesh.

Rinoa panted, her muscles clenching and her eyes rolling in the back of her head as ecstasy practically overpowered her. "Kiss me," she whispered.

Without missing a beat his lips came over hers, his tongue slipping between her teeth and allowing Rinoa to taste herself. Her arms possessively wrapped around his shoulders, clutching him tightly against her heated body.

"Don't stop," she demanded around his tongue.

Squall chuckled, his movements growing faster and more ferocious. "Never."

Rinoa clutched him tighter, her thighs tensed around his hips and she felt that sensation deep within her belly that was near boiling point. Her words turned into incoherent gasps as Squall thrust deeper and harder.

"Oh…ohmygod—Oh!" Her hands cupped the back of Squall's head, bringing his face into her chest as her head tilted backwards. She locked ankles behind him, her squeezing thighs driving him further into her as she came, her body shuddering with sweet and pulsating convulsions.

With a jagged thrust Squall finished, his body clenching and his palms slamming onto the countertop. His lips dropped to Rinoa's shoulder and with a panting breath he placed a gentle kiss at her bare skin.

Rinoa let out a strangled groan and let her fingers tangle within Squall's hair as she felt his heart pound madly against her breasts. Her lashes lowered and a lazy grin formed along her lips at the softness of Squall's kisses.

He raised a hand to the nape of her neck, his fingers gently tugging to bring her head backwards. His lips slanted over hers, swallowing her moans when he thrust one last time. He pulled his mouth from her and ran his fingers through her hair, tenderly cupped her jaw. "Fuck," he muttered.

"Hmm?"

He glanced behind him. "Couldn't even make it to the bed…" he told her. He turned back to her and gave her a stern a look. "See what you do to me?"

Rinoa chuckled and wrapped her arms around his neck, bringing him closer so she could run her tongue over his bottom lip. "I don't hear you complaining," she said back.

"How could I possibly?" His hands roamed over her back, his nails raking over the soft material of her shirt. "I like you in skirts," he said, pulling out of her finally to dispose of the condom.

Rinoa grinned as she watched him toss the rubber into garbage. They hadn't even gotten fully naked before being consumed with passion. As she sat on the kitchen counter she realized that it had all come full circle. Where she sat was where it had all started those few months ago, when he'd had her pinned against the counter and his tongue in her mouth. Now, she had had him fully inside her, their bodies entwined in the most intimate of embraces. She gnawed on her bottom lip as she watched him pull up his pants.

"I like being in skirts," she replied.

* * *

**A/N: xoxoxox I don't think there's much to say here ;) **


	21. Chapter 21

**A/N: Thank you everyone for all the new reviews and followers! Greatly appreciated, really! xoxoxoxox**

* * *

Rinoa hopped off the center island and shimmied her panties back up the length of her legs until they were back into place. She caught Squall watching her and once she had herself adjusted she sent him a playful grin and flipped her hair over her shoulder. Her fingers ran over her throat and she paused at the feel of the raised flesh. She paused and let out a sigh, apparently Squall's stubble had irritated her skin.

"Everything ok?"

Rinoa nodded and headed towards the bathroom. "Your scruff," she called out. As she turned on the light she peered into the mirror. Her neck was red where his chin had rasped against her. And then, on her collarbone…

"A _hickey!_" she shrieked.

When Squall appeared in the doorway, his steely eyes glinting with pride-filled mischief, his mouth upturned into a smirk and he gazed at her reflection.

She glared at him in the mirror and curled her lips into a snarl. Her eyes narrowed and even though she produced a very stern face, she couldn't help but laugh on the inside. "You dick."

Squall then let out a quiet chuckle. "Once your skin calms down it will fade," he said, walking past her to turn on the shower. As the water sprayed from its nozzle, Squall glanced at Rinoa over his shoulder. "Were you going to join me?"

Rinoa responded by only sticking out her tongue. "Nah, I've already showered today. I'm gonna go clean up the kitchen." Before he could protest she swiftly exited, closing the bathroom door behind her.

As she placed all the soiled dishes in the sink and scooped all the remnants of trash into the garbage, Rinoa pulled her phone from her purse. She'd missed a text from Selphie.

_S.T: Hey! So Absolute Lore goes on at 8:15ish…did you want to drive together? _

_R.H: I'll probably have to leave after their set =/ I've got a maternity shoot in the morning._

_S.T: Bummer! Well I'll see you there! You're going to make it to their show tomorrow night in Winhill right?_

_R.H: Yes!_

Rinoa tucked the phone away and lifted her head when she heard the door close. But…Squall was still in the shower…she could still hear the water running. A tiny breath escaped her when a face she didn't immediately recongnize came from around the corner.

The woman was tall, her brown hair tied back into a bun and her dark eyes bulged in surprise when they landed upon Rinoa. "Oh—! Holy shit…" The woman gasped and placed a hand upon her chest as she steadied her breathing. "Sorry, I didn't realize someone else was here." She tossed the few envelopes she'd had beneath her arm onto the kitchen counter.

It took Rinoa a moment, but suddenly she was filled with recognition. "Oh…you're—you're Squall's sister?"

The woman nodded, chuckling to herself as she set more items onto the counter. "That would be me! I'm Ellone."

"Rinoa. Um, he's in the shower…" Rinoa said lamely, her cheeks suddenly growing warm at the sudden awkward air that surrounded her. Was her skin still flushed with that just fucked glow? Was the air still thick with the scent of sex?

"Yes, I heard the water going as I came in." She looked directly at Rinoa and her mouth dropped open a little. "Oh! You…you were at the hospital!" She squeezed her eyes and tapped her fingernails along the counter as she thought. "Yes…you were seeing…your father!" She opened her eyes. "Is he alright?"

Rinoa smiled and nodded. "Yes, he's doing much better, thank you."

Squall came around the corner, his hair still dripping wet as he slicked it back. His eyes crossed over Rinoa for a moment before adjusting his shirt and slinging an arm around Ellone's shoulders. "Thought I heard voices," he said, giving a quick kiss to her forehead. "I see you've met Rinoa."

"We've met before," Ellone said, tilting her head to give his cheek a nudge.

"Oh yes," Squall murmured. "In the elevator, Rinoa told me." He moved away and poured another cup of coffee.

"Are you coming to Squall's show tonight?" Rinoa asked.

Ellone gave her a smile but shook his head. "Afraid not," she said. "I'm actually on my way into work right now."

"Another eighteen hour?"

She shrugged her shoulders and made a vague gesture with her hands. "Theoretically," she groaned.

"How's Kadowaki doing?" Squall poured creamer into the mug, stirred, and then placed it into Rinoa's hands. "Coffee?" he asked Ellone.

"No thanks, it's my turn to pick up the staff coffee. Kadowaki's good, she managed to hire on a new physical therapist in your place…this guy's only part time though." Ellone fussed with her hair and cleared her throat. "Lee…hasn't been in."

Squall only took a breath as he listened. "Is that right?"

"Well…he's still seeing his therapist, but…he says that he will only work with you and that I should let him know when you're back at the hospital."

"I see. I'll have to give him a call, see if he wants to come to the show."

Ellone nodded, her eyes crinkling as she grinned at her brother. She opened her mouth as if to say something else, but paused when her eyes crossed over Rinoa again. Instead she smiled again, subdued, almost as if she was trying to hold in a laugh. "Well, I should get going. I hope you have a great show! Give me a call before you leave again." She leaned in and gave him a quick smooch to the cheek. "It was lovely to meet you, Rinoa, I hope to see you again soon!" Ellone called, giving her a wave before turning down the hallway. "Squall, walk me out."

"It was nice to meet you too," Rinoa said brightly.

As Squall opened the door for her, Ellone gave him a teasing pinch to his shoulder. "I _knew_ it was a woman," she said softly. "I _knew_ it."

He didn't say anything, only ushered her out the door and followed behind. "Whatever."

Ellone bit back a squeal and poked him in the ribs. "Your ears are red! That's your tell," she whispered excitedly. "You _like_ this girl…don't you? Don't you!" When he didn't answer and only gave her a gentle shove, she danced a few steps. "Don't fuck this one up."

"What the—fuck _this one_ up?"

"Baby brother," she cooed. "I know you have issues with commitment." She sighed and her face suddenly became crestfallen. "You've always hated the sense of 'belonging' to someone…"

Squall waved her words away. "I don't need a psychoanalysis right now."

Ellone ran her fingers over a wet strand of brown that hung over his eyes. "I know," she whispered. "I know. But…I saw the way you looked at her, saw the smile that lit you up from the inside."

"You saw our interaction for less than five minutes."

"Sometimes that's all it takes! Pardon _moi_ for wanting my baby brother to be happy with someone. I thought perhaps that that person could be Kendra, once upon a time, but…clearly that was not meant to be."

Kendra…hell, he'd almost forgotten about her. He softly chuckled and tapped Ellone on the shoulder.

"When do I get to be an auntie?"

Squall's jaw nearly dropped to the floor.

"I'm kidding!"

* * *

Rinoa was responding to a text from her maternity shoot model when Squall came back in. She lifted up her gaze and sent him a grin when he rounded the corner.

"Who's that?" he asked. "Selphie?"

"No, it's Janine, my model tomorrow." Rinoa set the phone down. "We're going for a rock-a-billy theme. She's all tatted up, has sleeves with the most vibrant colors and she was asking about what kind of clothes she should wear that won't clash." Rinoa chuckled. "She told me about this black and white polka dot swimsuit she found in her mother's closet so I told her to see if it fits her and we'll do a little rock-a-billy at the beach."

Squall came around the center island and hopped up onto the couter, extending his legs so they wrapped around her and brought her in closer. "You like doing maternity shoots, don't you?" he asked, thinking back to the photograph she had shot of a woman wading in the ocean—one of the first images he had seen of hers.

"I do," she murmured, stepping in closer so that her arms slid around his neck. "Pregnant women are so beautiful, they are carrying this life inside them…they just glow with love." Rinoa stood on tiptoe and gently kissed his chin. "Your sister seems nice."

"She is. Can be a brat though."

Rinoa laughed. "I've always wondered what it would have been like to grow up with siblings."

"It's an experience." Squall sighed and leaned back so his palms lay flat atop the counter. "So, I take it you're driving separately since you have to work in the morning?"

"Yeah, I'm probably going to have to call it an early night and leave after your set is done."

"You going straight home?"

Rinoa shrugged. "Probably. I mean, I'll see the whole set tomorrow in Winhill…but I'm meeting Janine at the Balamb Pier over by 3rd Street. It's her favorite place, it's where her husband proposed to her and where she had her bridal shower."

"Hm." Squall released her from his legs and slid off the counter.

Rinoa glanced around while Squall shuffled through the drawers beside his bed. At the metallic jingling of keys she looked in his direction and saw him fussing with a keychain.

"Hang onto this for me," he said, placing his keys into her palm. "How about…after you leave the show you stay the night here? It's close to the freeway and then that way you won't have to get up as early since your apartment is a good twenty minutes at least from the closest onramp."

Rinoa felt her insides warm at the invitation. Her heart skipped a beat faster and she couldn't help but release a girlish giggle. "You want me to stay the night?"

"That I do."

"Then I will."

Squall looked at her with a glint in his eye that hinted at mischief. "Are you going to wear a skirt?"

* * *

**Later that night **

"Quistis!"

The blonde turned, her aquamarine eyes widening and her blood-red lips opening up into an ecstatic howl. "Rinoa! Ahhh!" She broke away from the small group she was conversing with and ran—impressively fast considering she was wearing tall heels—to the smaller girl and lifted her into the air. "I missed you!" she cried, giving her a firm squeeze.

"And I missed you!" Rinoa chuckled and ran her fingers over the blonde's hair. "Look at you! Look at this outfit!" She stepped back and waved her fingers in front of Quistis. She wore a white, lacey corset tunic that stopped just at her hips and the black capris clung to her like a second skin. "I love it! You look like a goddess straight out of a fairy tale."

Quistis spun around and flipped her long blonde hair over her shoulder. "Oh, why thank you! Zell actually picked out the blouse for me when we were in Trabia and went on a shopping spree."

"I know what looks good on a beautiful lady!" said Zell, wrapping his arm around Rinoa's shoulder. "Shame I can't figure out what looks good on me."

Selphie giggled and approached them, her arms possessively around Irvine's waist. "You win some, you lose some! Can't be perfect all the time, Zell." She beamed and scrunched her nose at Irvine when he nuzzled her hair.

"There's going to be an after party at the Deling Hotel where Djin Theory is staying at," Irvine said. "You're coming, right Rinoa?"

"Can't, got work early tomorrow. But if there's one after tomorrow's show then count me in!"

Zell howled and gave a few jabs into the air. "Fuck yeah! Drinking buddy?"

"You know it!" Rinoa raised her arms and shook her hips.

"Careful, don't shake those hips too much," Quistis warned. "Seifer might catch you on camera again." She sent a teasing wink and laughed at the blush that reached Rinoa's cheeks.

"Is he here?"

"Nah, last I heard he was in Fisherman's Horizon for a job," said Zell. "Your swaying hips are safe from peering eyes."

Irvine gave Rinoa a little nudge. "Well…safe from _Seifer's_ peering eyes, anyway. Can't say much for Leonhart's…"

Squall came around Irvine's left and swiftly pinned the cowboy's arm behind his back. "What about Leonhart?" he asked. His eyes narrowed when Irvine only responded with a stammer. "That's what I thought."

* * *

"Thank you, thank you," Irvine said, taking a deep breath and then grinning widely with humble pride. "You guys…you are amazing. Thank you, thank you, you beautiful creatures." He held up a hand and waved it back towards the rest of the band. "Again, we are Absolute Lore and it has been an honor playing for you tonight. Here is our last song…"

The crowd exploded with vocal displeasure and Irvine couldn't stop smiling. He looked over to Quistis and Zell, who were both completely beaming. Quistis placed her fingers over her lips and blew the crowd kisses. Even Squall, his face mostly hidden behind the cymbals, was grinning wider than usual. Even though Rinoa was not "scheduled" to be their photographer for the night, she aimed her camera right at him and then back at the crowd who loudly articulated their love for the band.

"Now, now," Irvine said, holding up his hands to quiet the crowd. "One last song and then you get to hear an amazing band that we have had the pleasure of touring with. Djin Theory has been our friends for quite some time, and we are so glad to have reconnected with them and be on this tour with them especially since it brought us back to our wonderful hometown of Deling!"

Roars and applause ensued. Rinoa raised her arms and screamed enthusiastically.

Irvine nodded and continued. "Our next song is actually a brand new one. No one has heard it yet…" He glanced backwards. "So I hope we don't fuck it up! Lyrics are by our very own eloquent drummer, Squall Leonhart." When the crowd cheered Irvine clapped his hands. "Thank you, this is…_Stars_."

Rinoa tilted her head as the song started up. Irvine backed away from the mic for a bit while Zell strummed over the chords. _A new song?_ Squall had made no mention about a new song to her, but then again they weren't really talking much about the band and were instead catching each other up about what had gone on in the last seven weeks.

"_Do you wanna go to heaven tonight?/Leave the evidence far behind/Say alright, alright/Do you wanna be my lover tonight?/We can leave everybody else behind/Say alright, alright._"

Rinoa watched as Irvine crooned into the mic, held the mic so tenderly close to his lips as he belted out the beautiful words…words that _Squall_ wrote. Rinoa didn't know that he wrote lyrics as well.

"_Do you wanna see heaven tonight?/Underneath those lights you will look so beautiful/Do you wanna see the stars before they fall/See the stars before they fall?_"

Rinoa lowered the camera and found herself immediately searching for Squall's face. She didn't want to be presumptuous, but she couldn't help but be brought back to the night before he left to go on tour. Her teeth caught her bottom lip as she remembered looking up at the stars while lying next to him in the car. Her cheeks warmed at the memory of when they both watched a falling star blaze across the sky…while he was still inside her.

"_Do you wanna be my love tonight?/And for all my life it could be so wonderful/Do you wanna see the stars before they fall/See the stars before they fall?_"

Zell strummed his guitar, arched his back and let the music consume him. Quistis stood before him, leaning towards him and licking her lips as each pluck vibrated against her pelvis.

"_Maybe we should just run away/Never look back 'cause the world decay/Say alright, alright._" Irvine madly shook his long hair and crouched down to point at the faceless crowd. "_Nothing matters ever since the day you put a pin in my heart like a hand grenade/Say alright, alright._" He shot up to his feet and raised a fist into the air. "_Do you wanna see heaven tonight?/Underneath those lights you will look so beautiful/Do you wanna see the stars before they fall?/See the stars before they fall?_"

Squall's beats violently filled the room, shook everyone to bear witness to the point where they could feel it within their bones.

"_Do you wanna be my love tonight?/And for all my life it could be so wonderful/Do you wanna see the stars before they fall? See the stars before they fall…_" Irvine, with his eyes closed, shouted the words at the top of his lungs, let the tunes carry out and snake their way through the crowd. "_Fall out of the atmosphere/Let's run…Run until we disappear/And never let them come and catch us/Never let them take away our stars!_"

Zell whipped forward to the head of the stage while Irvine fluidly fell back and bang his head to the beat in front of Squall's kit. Zell's fingers easily danced over his strings for his solo, the beautiful twangs meticulously vibrating from each chord. He bared his teeth and bobbed his head, screaming to himself as he felt the music pour from him and he thrust his hips forward toward the crowd, earning sharp squeals from those in the front row.

As he flung through the last strum, he sent the crowd a heated wink and stepped aside for Irvine. "_Do you wanna see heaven tonight?/Underneath those lights you will look so beautiful/Do you want to see the stars before they fall?/See the stars before they fall?/Do you wanna be my love tonight?/And for all my life it could be so wonderful/Do you wanna see the stars before they fall?/See the stars before they fall?_"

As Irvine repeated the last lines, Quistis leaned close to his mic and vocalized with him, her voice so much softer and honey-like in comparison to his gritty snarls.

The set ended with a quick chord manipulation from Zell and a final crash from Squall and Rinoa clapped her hands so hard and fast that her palms stung. Her blood was singing and she could feel her heart thunder and swell beneath her chest. Was the song about her? Should she ask him? No…she'll wait until he says something first. If anything, she decided that she should tell him it was a great song and that he should write more. As she turned away from the stage she found a familiar face.

"Hey!"

The brunette turned away from the younger girl beside her and her blue eyes widened in recognition and that beautiful smile spread across her face. "Hey! Rinoa, right?"

"Yeah! How are you?"

Kendra shrugged and put her arm around the young girl, probably no older than thirteen, and giggled. "My baby sister asked me to take her to see her _favorite_ band so how could I possibly tell her no?"

The young girl was almost a perfect replica of Kendra. She had the same bright and sparkling blue eyes, the same sharp chin, and a perfectly shaped mouth that would most likely have the same form of the megawatt smile (instead her smile was subdued and shy). The main difference besides age and height was that the young girl's hair was cut short and cropped close in a very adorable and stylish faux-hawk.

"Big fan huh?" Rinoa asked.

"I love them," said the young girl, bashfully lifting up her shoulders as she tried to step behind Kendra.

"Rae, this is Rinoa, she is Absolute Lore's photographer. She took those amazing band photos you were looking at the other day."

Rae's eyes widened in adoration and her lips cut into a starry smile. "That was _you?_ You are so talented! Those shots of Quistis—she's my hero! I asked our dad if I could get a bass for my birthday."

"I'm sure she'd love to hear that!" Rinoa squealed. "And thank you! I love taking pictures of them, they have so much chemistry with each other everything just flows so naturally between them."

"I had no idea they were touring already but Rae has been following their movements and saw that they were playing here tonight. Luckily it wasn't sold out yet when I bought the tickets the other night," Kendra grinned.

Squall had mentioned that the show was added in last minute—as in a few weeks ago, normally a venue and band would need much more notice. Rinoa smiled warmly to the younger girl. Then she noticed the shirt she was wearing. It was one of their older designs, Rinoa only knew that because Quistis had been wearing the same one when they had gone to the gym before she left.

"I like your shirt!" Rinoa raised up her camera and suddenly a thought struck her. "You know, I think Absolute Lore should have an album on their page filled with their loyal fans. May I?"

Rae's eyes sparkled and she turned to her sister who was scrunching up her nose in laughter. "Really?" Rae asked, her voice pitching higher with her evident excitement. "Oh, wow—ok!"

Rinoa gestured from Kendra to Rae. "Would you like to be in the shot?"

Kendra laughed but shook her head and stepped behind Rinoa. "Oh, no thank you," she said. "No, this is all about her!"

"Ok!" Rinoa turned the camera to Rae and giggled as the girl was clearly over the moon with exhilaration. When the younger girl asked what she should do, Rinoa just shrugged her shoulders. "Whatever you want!"

Rae put on a tough face and raised her hands in the shape of horns. After two shots the face broke out into laughter and Rinoa kept shooting. Rae threw her arms high over her head and jumped in the air.

After a few more shots, Rinoa lowered her camera. "Great! I'm sure they're going to love this," she said.

Rae clapped her hands, her face flushed and her breath heavy from her energetic movements. "Can I go to the merch booth?" she asked Kendra.

"Sure, just come right back here afterwards," Kendra responded and the younger girl practically skipped her way through the crowd. Kendra just shook her head and chuckled. "Sisters," she said. "Do you have any?"

"No, only child."

Kendra nodded. "I was for the longest time."

Rinoa glanced over to where the younger girl was standing in line for the merch booth. "I see that," she commented. "That's quite an age gap. Second marriage?"

"Oh, no, we have the same parents." Kendra smiled at the confusion set on Rinoa's face. "Our parents had me when they were really young. They split up when I was a baby and my dad actually moved to a completely different country for work so I didn't see him much. He would send letters and we would talk on the phone…but that was it for a while. Then when I was twelve my dad moved back here to Deling to be closer to family and he and my mom reconnected and then…" Kendra gestured towards Rae. "Bam. Love found a way."

Rinoa's heart swelled at the story. It was so sweet and it made her almost squeal out loud. "Wow," she gasped. "What a story!"

Kendra nodded. "I know right? To me that's my favorite love story…sometimes when people meet it isn't the right time and then when they meet up again later in life it _is_ the right time and then the love story that they were supposed to have can now come true!"

Rinoa smiled as she thought about what Kendra had said. "True, but I think all love stories are my favorite, especially when the two people are happiest when with each other."

"Oh, so true," Kendra whispered. She glanced behind Rinoa and her eyes widened. "Uh oh, Rae's motioning for me to come over. I think she found something she wants and needs some help from my wallet." She turned back to Rinoa and gave her a quick hug. "It was good seeing you! Thanks again for taking those pictures of Rae, I'm sure you just made her night even more spectacular."

"Anytime!"

When Kendra pulled away, she moved her hair behind her back, exposing the ink that dotted across her collarbone.

Rinoa's eyes zeroed in on the shooting stars that blazed over Kendra's fair skin and for some reason she felt a slight pang in her gut. "I…I like your tattoo," she said almost shakily.

"Oh, thanks! I love shooting stars. I used to go out stargazing all the time…with um…someone." She waved to Rinoa one last time and hurried off towards her sister.

* * *

**"Stars" music and lyrics by Sixx AM**


	22. Chapter 22

_K: Hey! =)_

_S.L: Hey_

_K: Great show tonight. Rae is in looooooooove!_

_S.L: Glad to hear it._

_K: So…I don't wanna be THAT person…but do you think you could introduce her to Quistis? She idolizes her._

Squall glanced up from his phone and searched for Quistis in the crowd. He found her easily, dancing by herself in front of the stage as Fujin leaned in towards her, the mic cradled in her clawed hands.

_S.L: After the show meet me by the merch booth. I'll bring Quistis over._

_K: You are AMAZING! Thank you so much, you have officially made me the best big sister EVER!_

* * *

Squall blinked when he saw the young teenager with the faux hawk, practically bouncing in place in excitement. She was hardly the little twerp he had met a few years ago, but yes, that was Rae. That was the little child that had come into Kendra's bedroom one night because she'd had a nightmare, which resulted in Squall having to get dressed and sleep on the couch.

Kendra sent him a polite smile when he approached. "Thank you so much," she said, leaning in so he could hear her over the crowd of voices.

"Hi! You must be Rae," Quistis said, extending her hand for the younger girl.

Rae was suddenly star struck, her blue eyes wide and glittering with tears. "You know my name…" she whispered, her voice crackling in shock.

"I do! Squall's told me about you, he said that you want to play the bass?"

"Yes! I'm going to ask my dad for a bass for Christmas! An Ibenez, just like yours, only I want a silver one!"

Squall gave a soft grin at the teenager's enthusiasm, and soon she and Quistis were in a deep conversation about the arts.

"Quistis, I met your photographer!"

Squall's ears perked up and he watched as Rae bounced on the toes of her Doc Marten's.

"Oh you did?" Quistis asked. "Isn't she _amazing?_ I just adore her."

"Yes! She took a few pictures of me and said that she was going to put it on your web page!"

Quistis grinned and clapped her hands. "How awesome! I'll have to look for it." She turned towards Kendra. "Did she capture you on film too? Rinoa has a habit of chasing after lovely subjects."

Kendra laughed and shook her head. "Oh, no. She asked but I told her to focus on Rae!"

Squall inwardly stiffened. Even though Rinoa and Kendra had met previously, the circumstances were now a tad different. _Fuck…_ He thought back to how Rinoa quickly rushed out when he found her by the bar after his set. She had simply smiled at him, said her goodbyes to everyone she could and leaned in closely to say, "I'll see you at home," then she became even more flustered, he thought perhaps it was because she said "home." After a moment of thinking he found he was definitely warming up to the idea of coming back to his apartment and finding Rinoa in his bed. He looked over to Kendra, who was staring lovingly at her sister.

Feeling his eyes on her, she turned her gaze to him and smiled. "Thank you," she mouthed. She softly patted his shoulder. "Really, _thank you_."

"Of course." He slid his phone from his pocket at looked at the time. It was just after eleven, he had to leave. "Have a good night, thanks for coming out." He turned away and sought out Irvine. When he found him at the bar with Selphie, Squall tapped his shoulder. "You heading out soon?"

Irvine glanced at his watch. "Yeah, probably should." He wrapped his arm around Selphie and helped her off the bar stool. "Ready to go?"

"Sure!"

"Mind dropping me off before you head to the hotel?"

"You're not coming to the party?" Selphie asked.

He only shook his head. "Nah, not tonight."

Fujin appeared beside him with Royce dangling an arm around her shoulders. She was giggling, her hand cradling a neon green martini. "What a night!" she said, nudging Squall's thigh with her hip. "Great show, great show. Man…it feels good to be home!"

"Alright, who's ready to blow this joint and get to that party!" Royce hollered.

"We're leaving now," said Irvine. "We're just dropping Squall off first."

Fujin's eye widened and she gave him a pout. "What? You're not going to the after party?"

"Not tonight," he told her. "Tomorrow, yes."

"But why?"

Squall shrugged. "I just want to spend as much time in my bed as I can before we leave again."

Fujin clicked her tongue and nodded. "Ah…I can understand that. Home is where your bed is!" She swiped her free hand forward and gave him a quick swat to the ass. "You go get into that bed and cuddle the ever lasting fuck out of it!"

Royce roared with laughter while Squall shook his head, an amused grin curving into his lips. "I think you've had enough of this," said Squall, taking the martini from Fujin's grasp and quickly downing its contents.

Before Fujin could vocally express her distaste for Squall's actions, Royce picked her up and threw her over his shoulder. "The Lady must be taken away," Royce announced, giving Squall and Irvine a mocking salute. "I shall see you tomorrow, Squall!"

* * *

Irvine pulled up to Squall's apartment. He set the Pathfinder into park and swiveled in his seat to look at Squall, who was lazily unbuckling himself from his seat. "Man, you sure you don't wanna come with us to the party at the hotel?" he asked. "I got a text from Nida, he and a few others are already on their way over."

"Quistis is heading back to the van and changing her clothes, someone spilled beer on her pants." Selphie sent her a quick response and dropped her phone into her purse. When she lifted up her eyes she made a noise of curiosity. "Is…is that Rinoa's car?" she asked.

Irvine whirled around in his seat, his wide eyes landing on the icy blue Cube that was parked under 'GUEST.' He turned back around to face Squall. His mouth was open in a ridiculous and goofy looking silent howl. "You _dog_," he whispered.

Selphie glanced between the two men and snaked between the front seats so that she could reach Squall and pinch his arm. "Wait—when—_what?_ She didn't tell me anything!"

"There's nothing to tell," he said. "She's heading to Balamb Pier in the morning, my place is closer to the freeway than hers is."

Selphie pursed her lips in skepticism. "Smooth…" she said. "You've got an answer for everything, don't you?"

Squall only offered her a smirk before slipping out of the car. "I'll see you guys tomorrow."

* * *

A soft knock came at the door and Rinoa lifted her head from the couch's arm. Her eyes darted over to the clock on Squall's DVD player. It was just after midnight, she had only been at Squall's place for a little while…when had she fallen asleep?

Another knock echoed against the door, this time a bit louder. "Coming, coming," she said sleepily, crawling off the couch. She pulled open the door and smiled at the sight that greeted her on the other side.

"Did I wake you?" he asked, his eyes skimming over her face and pausing just at her lips.

Rinoa smirked and tugged on his shirt, snatching him inside. "Apparently I was tired," she murmured against his chest. "How was the rest of the show?"

Squall locked the front door behind him and kicked off his boots. "It was great," he told her. "While Djin Theory was playing Zell and I were approached by Mistress Mecia."

"Mistress Mecia…from that Ultimate Rock station, FFVIII?" Rinoa's mouth widened in an excited smile. "Really?"

"Yeah, she wants all of us to come to the station sometime tomorrow for a guest spot on her show. We've met her before about a year ago, she usually plays our songs since she's one of the lead DJ's for the local radio station."

Rinoa clapped her hands. "Yay! What time are you heading over there?"

"Probably around noon. Let the others sleep off a hangover and whatnot."

Rinoa chuckled. "Sounds like a plan."

Squall cracked his neck and looked over to the bed. He expected to see his sheets rumpled from Rinoa sleeping in them but instead they were still tucked in and were just as pristine as they were from when he left them that morning.

"Now, this may seem like a silly question…but why were you sleeping on the couch and not my bed?" he asked, his gaze scanning over to where her purse rested on the cracked coffee table.

"Hm? Um…I just kinda passed out on it?"

His hands came down upon her, running over her ribcage as he let his eyes trail over her tempting lips. "You're…not _too_ tired…" His eyes lifted to meet hers. "…are you?"

Rinoa rolled her bottom lip between her teeth. "For you? Nah." She stepped forward, her hands gently pressing against his chest to make him walk backward. His brows rose a fraction as he watched her take control and practically shove him towards the bed.

Rather than push him onto the mattress like he thought she was going to, she climbed onto the bed and lifted herself onto her knees so she was somewhat level with him after turning him around. "Take your clothes off," she demanded.

Squall grinned. "Yes ma'am." He reached behind him and pulled his shirt over his head, ruffling his hair. As he stood before her in his sleeveless undershirt and black jeans, he leaned in just a breath away from her luscious lips. "Which do you want off first?"

Practically squealing with delight (on the inside), Rinoa chuckled and ran a pensive finger down her chin. "This," she said, gently pinching the ribbed material of his undershirt. "I want to see this piercing."

Obediantly he removed his shirt, exposing his chest that she had yet to fully see.

The first thing she noticed was the inked words along his right pectoral. The words were written as if they were scrawled with an inkwell pen, the ink splattered almost beautiful amongst the looping font. The font was elegant yet crude and hurried. The words _Time will not Wait_ blazed across his flesh in black ink.

Her nails raked over the left side of his chest, grazing over the Balamb Garden insignia inked into his skin. The tattoo covered his entire pectoral, the black and white interlocking center perfectly placed over his left nipple, the small and hardened tip completely covered with black ink.

And there, threaded through the right nipple, was the infamous ring she had felt but was just now seeing for the first time. "So," she whispered. "Why only one?" she asked, leaning forward and slowly running her tongue over the silver hoop.

His throat jerked as he stifled a moan. "It's not an interesting story."

"I'll be the judge of that. Come on…tell me. I wanna know."

"Honestly? We had just left a bar and Zell decided to get his ears stretched. I already had mine done a few weeks before and since the shop took cash only, I only had enough cash on me to get nipple pierced."

Rinoa clamped her lips together, her jaw tightening as she tried not to laugh aloud. "Seriously?"

"Told you it wasn't interesting."

He shoved his pants down to the ground and watched her lick her lips when she gazed upon another tattoo, this one on his lower abdomen. Half of it she had been able to see once his shirt was off, but now that he had removed his pants he had inadvertently lowered his boxers by a few inches. Between his belly button and the southern region of the "happy trail," was the skull of a lion.

Rinoa pushed further against her elbows and gently kissed the lion's fangs. While she laid kisses against the tattoo, she arched her back, pushing her ass upwards into the most tantalizing view.

Squall groaned and bent forward slightly so that his hands ran over her spine, gripped her hips carnally before giving her ass a possessive squeeze. She didn't wear a skirt like he had requested, gave him a very detailed listing of reasons why wearing a skirt at a rock show was out of the question when she was trying to capture great photographs. Instead she wore dark gray jeans that night that clung to her like a second skin and showed off the lean and succulent curves of her body. Her shirt was a loose fitting blue blouse, very similar to the one she had worn the day he had first met her.

His fingers hooked beneath the soft fabric and pulled it towards him, exposing that curving spine and the black lace of her bra. With his breath coming faster he completely removed her shirt, his chest tightening when she rose up onto her knees and brought his lips to hers.

Rinoa twisted her body so she lay atop of him, her thighs straddled his hips and she leaned in. "You played so well tonight," she purred, running her hands over her bra.

Squall's eyes glided over the sleek plane of her stomach, his hands gripped her pelvis and ground his hips into her. "Yeah?" he asked, his voice thick and breathy. He was hypnotized as he watched her roll her hips into him.

Rinoa gave him a throaty chuckle and climbed off of him, her hands hastily tearing away his boxers. "Yeah." Before he even had a chance to catch his breath she took his length into her mouth, her nails digging into his abdomen as he clenched her hair into his fist.

"Holy—fuck!" He dropped his head back, sinking it into the pillows as he submersed himself in the pleasure Rinoa was giving him with her mouth. With a snarl he pulled her head away from his groin, his teeth gritting as he caught sight of her mouth, still open and wet. "You…are amazing," he managed to pant out, flipping her onto her back and freeing her from her jeans.

Licking her lips, she watched him reach over to his nightstand and pull out a condom. As he sank himself into her she practically screamed. Her nails dug into his back and her legs possessively wrapped around his waist as his thrusts grew more ferocious with carnal need.

"Fuck!" she gasped. Her eyes rolled into the back of her head and her grip on him tightened and her hips rhythmically rose to meet him. His teeth ravaged her neck, sending her nerves into a frenzy. When she was able to see straight and focus her vision on him, she was met with his intense and steely gaze.

The look in his eyes was so primeval and lascivious like she could be devoured by his need and lust for her. His thrusts and movements were so rough, so animalistic, so filled with hunger and fervor. Her hands cradled his chin, bringing his lips to crash into hers.

She moaned, the tip of her tongue trailing now over his throat. With a quick movement he grasped her wrists in one hand, pinning them high above her head and into the pillows. Despite the rough gesture, his free hand came of her cheek, his thumb softly brushing over her bottom lip that was swelling from their kisses.

The feel of his body, warm and completely naked as it lined up against her, sent electric shocks throughout her veins. She felt her breath come faster, her heartbeat heavier, her blood boiling as she could feel herself reach her peak.

When he reached his breaking point he released her wrists, grunting when she plunged her fingers into his hair as he thrust one last time. Together they came down from their high, their breaths mingling as they panted and gazed at each other, striking blue eyes boring into rich brown.

Her flesh was still tingling, the lower half of her body still strumming with the hums of euphoria. Rinoa smiled, her fingers gently running over the stubble of his chin. He kissed her fingertips and sighed, pulling out of her. Squall disposed of the condom and came back into the bed, trailing kisses over the bites he had left on her neck. "Sorry if I was too rough," he said, his eyes drifting over the marks.

Rinoa only rolled over and cuddled into his chest. "I'm sure I'll survive," she said through a yawn.

Looking at the time, Squall winced. "Shit, sorry to keep you up so late. Hope you won't be too tired for your shoot tomorrow."

"That's what coffee is for. I'm sure you can make me enough in the morning," she mumbled happily. "Night, Squall."

He pulled the blanket over them and laid a kiss to her forehead. "Night."

* * *

There was definitely _not_ enough coffee made in the morning. While Rinoa was in the shower Squall had decided to jump in as well, which resulted in her pinned against the shower wall with her leg hooked around his waist and her hands gripping the washcloth rod for support. She hadn't felt the need to protest, not with his lush lips against her cheek and his talented fingers dipped low between their bodies to ensure she came before he did.

It was a quick little romp, and she couldn't help but giggle at the mischievous grin he sent her when he was finished. He didn't even take a shower, and instead captured her lips with a deep and heated kiss before exiting to go make her coffee.

"Animal," she whispered, adjusting the settings on her camera as she tried to focus her mind on the expecting couple before her. He was insatiable! Then again…she herself still felt her body yearn for him even though she had had him _twice_ in the last ten hours.

As she snapped away she thought about all the things she was going to do to him later that night…

* * *

Squall looked at the woman in front of him. Mistress Mecia of Ultimate Rock was well known throughout Galbadia and Deling not only for her deep and sultry voice, but also because of her striking looks. Her hair was the purest white he had ever seen, and whether or not it was her natural hair color was always a mystery even to her fans. Her lips were always painted a shade of merlot and her eyes were sharp and accentuated with dark eye shadows. She was the kind of woman who was practically ageless. She could have been anywhere from the age of twenty-nine to forty, no one could really tell.

Today she wore a deep red velvet dress that stopped just below her knees, exposing the lines and swirls of ink that laced its way up the length of her legs. She waved for everyone to sit down and put on their corresponding ear phones and mics.

"Thanks for coming in today," she said, her smokey voice filling the studio as she leaned in close to her mic in preparation.

"Of course," Irvine said with a grin. "You've been a supporter of ours since the beginning!"

Mecia chuckled and waved her fingers over the controls. "Always a fan of talent. We're going live in three…two…" She flicked on the switch and pointed at one of the staff members who was manning the camera for their online site.

As the song that was currently playing on the radio finished, Mecia spoke into her mic. "Hey everyone, thanks for listening, this is Mistress Mecia and today I have very special guests here in my studio. That's right my children, I have Deling's very own Absolute Lore sitting right in front of me, sparing some time just for us from their very busy tour schedule." Mecia turned her honey colored eyes towards them and winked. "Thanks for coming out."

"Anything for you," Quistis said with a flirtatious grin.

"It's great to be here," Zell agreed.

Squall nodded with an affirmative grunt while Irvine said, "Thanks for having us."

Mecia scrolled through her online notes. "Alright, so last night when I posted online that I was going to have you guys on the show I asked some of your fans to send me some questions to ask you. Let's see what we have here…Quisits, this one is for you my love. Alright, thisaintmyrealname says, 'In the interview for _Misery_ you stated that music is your outlet, how did you discover this for yourself?' Ooh, that's a good one, I like it."

Quistis chuckled. "Yes! That is a good one, I'm so glad it's not a question about where I get my clothes or if plucking the strings chip my nails! Well, as a kid I grew up listening to a lot of rock and roll, mostly the timeless classics like Hendrix, and I just remember that it always put me in a good mood. No matter how down I was feeling, rock and roll uplifted my spirits. When I was in junior high I was required to take a music class and I found myself so interested in playing an instrument. It just blew my mind how people were able to create such art with a hunk of wood and some string. I dabbled a bit with the violin and even a cello…but when I played a bass—and I mean a double bass, those really large ones that are like bigger than me—I just felt this _connection_. The low and heavy pitch just kinda…" She raised her hands, her fingers dancing and her eyes closing as she thought back to her childhood. "…it spoke to me. It like awakened this being within me and just feeling how this music came out of me from just my bow going across the strings…it felt right."

Squall crossed his arms and nodded softly. "Not too many people know this about her, but she can play a whole range of string instruments."

Quistis laughed and gave him a playful shove. "Now…I haven't played double bass in about ten years or so, but I definitely owe it to my discovery of who I am! Playing double bass was fun but obviously it's not something I can lug around. When I saw a bass guitar in a music shop I instantly knew I had to make it mine."

Zell gave a holler. "She is _amazing_, I am so honored to be playing with this talented little vixen," he said.

Mecia smiled. "Well I am so proud of you little babies. You guys are all talented and I'm glad you guys discovered each other so that I have some wonderful music to play!" She went on to the next question. "Alright, this one is for Irvine! Irvine, R2doubleD2 says, 'Rumor has it that you've been with your lady for quite some time, how are you able to make your relationship work with the distance?'" Mecia arched a perfectly sculpted brow. "Oh…now we're getting into the personal shit."

Irvine gave a low whistle. "Yeah…yes we are! Well…Selphie is great, really, she is so supportive and understanding and I miss her like fucking crazy when I'm on the road. What has been working for us is definitely the amazing technology we have in this day in age. We text, talk on the phone, and she's great and just sends me quick photo texts of herself."

"Oooh…photos huh? Anything to keep the relationship…stimulating?" Mecia chuckled huskily.

Irvine laughed. "Well…I won't go into full details but yeah…she keeps me snagged in."

"How wonderful," Mecia purred.

"Yeah the pictures are pretty risqué," Squall said. "One time I picked up his phone to use the calculator and Selphie had just texted him." He cleared his throat and gave Mecia a look. "Let's just say I made damn sure that Irvine has a password protected phone now."

Irvine roared with laughter and clapped his hands. "Yeah…Leonhart has definitely learned his lesson when it comes to picking up other people's phones—especially when they have a special lady in their life who is currently far away."

"I just wanted to use the calculator, not see Selphie in her panties."

Zell snickered. "Yeah, his drunk ass couldn't find his own phone and he was trying to figure out some equation Fujin presented about how many hours it would take us to drive from one venue to another if we kept a steady pace of seventy miles an hour."

"I honestly don't even remember the question or why I really wanted to figure it out," Squall muttered.

"So, tell me," Mecia said to Squall, her eyes twinkling with playful mischief. "Is there a special lady in _your_ life?" She theatrically crossed her arms over her front and held her chin between her fingers. "Inquiring minds all along your band's web page want to know! Especially after the debut of _Stars_."

A grin spread softly over his face and he released a quiet chuckle. _So nosy,_ he thought. _Don't want to know about how I've been a drummer for nearly fourteen years or how I've mastered my craft…they only want to know who I put my dick in._ With a slight shake of his head he adjusted the mic in front of him. "Oh really?" he rumbled. "_That's_ what they want to know?"

Mecia shrugged and gave him a sigh that echoed his train of thought. "It was one of the most common questions for you," she said. "_I _want to hear about the band's history and passion—but we'll indulge the fans and their desires to know a little about your personal lives." She sent him a reassuring wink. "Your lyrics are so simple yet thought provoking. What was going through your mind when you wrote _Stars_, what was the inspiration behind it?"

Squall relaxed a little, his grin growing a tad wider. "Well, I've always loved being outside at night and just looking up at the sky. It's hard to see the stars when you're in the city, there's too many lights. When you're out in the mountains or along the beach…_that's_ where you get the best view."

"You like to stargaze?"

He nodded, his lashes lowering for a brief moment. "I haven't in a while…used to do it all the time as a kid or when I was in high school. I actually went stargazing recently for the first time in years…the night before we went on our first tour."

Mecia raised her brows and excitedly lifted her shoulders. "Oh, good! Good for you."

"Yeah, it was amazing," Squall said. "It uh…it was a great night."

"And was that great night spent _alone?_"

Squall cocked his head to the side as he eyed the woman in front of him. Before he could even utter one word, Quistis threw her long legs over his lap. "Alright, alright…" she said, stretching her body length-wise so that she leaned into Zell's arms. "The truth is coming out." She closed her eyes and placed a palm over her chest. "_I'm_ the special lady."

Mecia nearly choked on a giggle as Quistis took over the interview. "You are?" she asked in a mock gasp.

"Yes, yes it's true. They're all madly in love with me."

Zell tightened his hold around her and planted a kiss against her temple. "Yes, she is most definitely _our_ special lady."

Squall patted Quistis' shin. "Oh yeah…she's _special_ alright."

"Don't be rude, dear," Quistis said through a tight smile. "It's not a good look on you."

Irvine just sat behind them all, chuckling to himself and softly shaking his head. "What can I say? She's got these boys just _wrapped_ around her finger."

Zell guffawed and gave Squall's shoulder a hearty smack. "Leonhart's shy, ladies, I think ya'll just made him blush."

Mecia threw her head back and released a silky chuckle. "Aww…alright, no more teasing Squall."

Squall grinned and arched a brow in Mecia's direction. "Yeah, enough of that, assholes. Let's play some goddamn music. No one wants to hear about my boring ass life."

Mecia laughed and straightened out her earphones. "Alright, folks, you heard it from their own mouths! It's time to play some _goddamn music._ We will pick up more of the interview after a few songs. Right now we're going to play the newest piece from Deling's very own, Absolute Lore, this is…_Stars._"

* * *

"Number forty-seven!"

"Right here!" Rinoa raised her arm and reached between a pair of shoulders to grasp the takeout bag. "Thanks," she said to the deli clerk before maneuvering her way through the crowd. She finally broke out of the deli and sighed. She hadn't realized how hungry she was until she exited the freeway. Squall had texted her earlier, saying that the radio spot was over and he was on his way back to his apartment, so Rinoa had offered to buy him lunch.

"Rinoa?"

She lifted her gaze and started when it swept over a pair of piercing green eyes divided by a slanting scar. "Oh, hi!" she said.

Seifer grinned and nodded his head at her. "How's it going?" he asked, sipping from the cardboard coffee cup in his hands.

"It's great! You? I thought Irvine mentioned that you were in Fisherman's Horizon?"

"I was, just got back in a few hours ago but Raijin and I are leaving later tonight for a quick tv spot interview for this comedy show."

"Well have a safe trip! Oh, and by the way…" She stepped forward and gave him a quick jab to the ribs. "Thanks for putting me in the video! You asshole, don't you need a signed release or something?"

Seifer snickered and batted her hand away when she tried to land another blow. "Hey! Couldn't see your face right? Besides, it looked great! A lot of the viewers liked the video so I think it was a well placed shot."

Rinoa scoffed and rolled her eyes. "Whatever, you dick," she said with a grin.

"What? I'm sure Leonhart enjoyed it."

Before Rinoa could even utter a word, Seifer wagged his eyebrows at her and danced back a step when she recovered enough to try and smack his arm. "Hey! How could he not, right? I mean, look at you!" He laughed and stepped in to give her shoulder a nudge. "Oh come on, I saw how he looked at you. You forget that I was recording the entire show?"

"We're friends," Rinoa said.

Seifer chuckled. "Friends? Yeah. Sure. A guy and a girl can never be 'just friends.' Not with the way you two look at each other."

Rinoa shifted the deli bag in her arms and sent him a heated glare. "Well, maybe _you_ can't!" she protested.

The teasing grin slowly melted into a soft and genuine smile. "Look, I'm not gonna tell you who to date or how to handle your personal business, but when it comes to Leonhart I feel that this must be said…just give him some time."

"Huh?" Rinoa could feel her brows knitting closer together.

Seifer only continued to offer her that sweet smile that was seemingly without his normal taunt. "I've known Squall a long time…and I remember back in high school he didn't date much, but there were a few girls who always said 'He's mine.' He didn't like that very much. He didn't particularly care for when people claimed he _belonged_ to them. Lord knows he dealt with that shit enough at his last foster home."

Rinoa swallowed, thinking back to Squall's brief conversation about his last foster home. She remembered the haunting look in his eyes as he mentioned them. "Why are you telling me this?" she asked, wary of his intentions.

"Squall's a good man. An idiot half the time…but still, he's a good man. And you? You are just enough firecracker inside to keep him grounded and knock him down a peg when needed." His grin grew wider and his eyes sparked with a hint of mischief. "A healthy relationship is where two people can call each other out on his or her bullshit without the other getting too butthurt."

Rinoa narrowed her eyes. "Are _you_ seriously giving me dating advice?"

Seifer laughed. "Like I said, he's a good man. He deserves someone to make him happy for once. He should have someone he feels he belongs _with_, not _to._"

"Hmm…" Rinoa only twisted her lips into a sarcastic grin and started to turn away. "Well, if we decide to pursue a relationship that will be our choosing, won't it? But, I think—for now—we are content with what we are, whatever the label for it may be." She gave Seifer a smile and waved her fingers at him. "Have a safe trip!"

* * *

Squall's ears perked up when he heard the front door's lock turn. His lips curved into a smirk when he witnessed Rinoa coming around the corner with a deli bag in her arms. "Hey," he said casually.

"Hi," she said brightly, setting the bag onto the kitchen counter. "I wasn't entirely sure what you like on your sandwich so I had them put the condiments in these little cup thingies so you can put them on yourself." She pulled everything out of the bag and spread them along the counter's surface. "How'd your radio spot go? I missed it!"

"Oh, she'll probably play it again later on tonight before the show. She's going to set up cameras at Winhill so she can livestream it on the radio's website. It was good, some of the questions were a bit outlandish. You know, shit the fans want to know."

Rinoa shrugged and unwrapped her sandwich. "What, like what your blood type is, or your favorite scary movie, or what anime characters you secretly ship?"

Squall let out a laugh and took out his own sandwich and dressed it himself. "Basically. There were some pictures of Fujin in between Zell and I from a show about a year ago." He pulled his phone from his pocket and scrolled through to find it. The photo was of Fujin, dressed as a pirate with her back against Squall's chest, her right arm bent backwards to grasp the back of his head while her left arm was extended over Zell's shoulders. In her hand she held a toy gun and between her teeth she had a rainbow swirled lollipop. Zell was dressed like a parrot, his large and spiky hair colored green and his nose painted like a yellow beak.

"Squall, why aren't you in costume?" Rinoa laughed, looking at the simple black button up he wore. "Was this for Halloween?"

"Yeah."

"So why didn't you dress up?" she demanded.

He only exhaled a soft laugh. "I didn't really plan on anything. Anyways, this old picture came up and so some of the questions were how long we all knew Djin Theory, if anything was going on between any of us…shit like that."

"Oh boy," Rinoa teased. "Your fans are getting so nosy."

"Yeah, apparently there's a 'secret romance' brewing between Quistis and Hans."

Rinoa giggled. "Seriously?"

"I don't think they really take it seriously, I think a lot of them just like making up their own stories just for entertainment." He picked up the sandwich and brought it to his lips. "Thanks for picking up lunch," he said as he took a bite.

"Of course, have to make sure you stay energized for your show tonight! What time were you guys leaving for Winhill?"

"Well it's about two hours away and we go on at nine…so we'll probably leave at around five." He shifted in his seat and brushed the crumbs from his chin. "We were thinking about getting hotel rooms out there so we wouldn't have to drive back down here to sleep."

"Makes sense."

"Selphie and Quistis were going to share a room if you wanted to bunk with them."

"Sure." Rinoa finished her sandwich and carefully rolled the paper wrap into a neat ball. "I'll see if Selphie wants to drive with me." She turned towards him and felt her insides warm when she noticed his hand creeping along her thigh. "Or…did you want to be my driving buddy?"

With a deep chuckle within his throat, he leaned in towards her and nuzzled her neck. "I'll take as much time with you as possible," he murmured. "If that's alright with you, of course."

Rinoa wrapped her arms around his neck and smiled. "Shall we get a hotel room during our stay in Winhill?"

"That may be wise," he whispered before descending his lips to hers.

* * *

**A/N: Hey guys! Thanks again for all your reviews and new favs/followers!**


	23. Chapter 23

As the drive to Winhill was underway, Squall told Rinoa to pull up to the nearest gas station and that he'd fill up her tank. When she pulled her Cube up to the pump he immediately got out and started sliding his debit card through the machine. "Here," he said, handing her some cash. "Can you grab me a pack of cigarettes? And whatever else you want."

Rinoa smirked. "Smokes and road beers?" she teased.

Squall grinned at her and let out a shrill whistle through his teeth. "Fire it up," he said, pushing his sunglasses up to rest upon his head. "I think you've watched _The Crow_ far too many times," he called to her as she walked away. He remembered seeing the film in her motley DVD collection and recalled that the case was beyond worn.

As Rinoa waited in line to buy the energy drinks and snacks for her and Squall, she overheard the conversation that transpired between two teenage girls that had just walked into the station. They couldn't have been more than fifteen, and together they were quietly giggling to each other as they perused the narrow candy aisle.

"Did you see him?" one said, glancing over her shoulder to peer out the window. "He was _hot._"

"But did you see that scar?" whispered the other. "He looks dangerous."

"And that matters why?" argued the first girl.

Rinoa pressed her lips together as she tried to muffle a laugh. _Oh Squall, you little heartbreaker you,_ she thought. When it came to be her turn at the register, she gave the cashier a smile. "Just these and could I get a pack of Cactaur Reds?"

The cashier nodded and reached overhead to grab the pack of cigarettes. As he scanned in the rest of her purchases and bagged them, he lifted a chin at her. "Need matches?"

"No thanks, I'm sure he's got a lighter."

Rinoa finished paying and exited. She slid behind the wheel and watched as Squall leaned against the back of her car, his arms crossed and his gaze focused on the changing numbers that flickered across the screen of the pump. Rinoa ran her fingertips over her mouth as she watched him. She wasn't sure what it was, but there was something so attractive about a man pumping gas for her. Or, perhaps she found it attractive because of _who_ that man was. She softly giggled to herself. She was no better than those little girls who were gushing about the handsome stranger they had just walked past. Every little thing he did was just another addition to her fondness of him.

_God I hate him,_ she thought.

The nozzle clicked and Squall moved to detach it from Rinoa's car. After closing off her gas casket and ripping his copy of the receipt from the pump's machine, he slid into the passenger seat. "You ready to go?" he asked her.

Rinoa turned her head to him and gave him a soft grin. "Absolutely," she answered, reaching into her center compartment to grab her sunglasses. As she pushed them up the bridge of her nose, she caught sight of the two teenage girls leaving the station and walking towards the front of the Cube. Smiling to herself, she turned the ignition and waited for them to pass.

At the noise of the car, the girls on instinct glanced in their direction. One of them noticed Squall and her mouth dropped open a fraction.

Rinoa checked the space behind Squall to make sure no other car was leaving and slowly crept her car forward. Squall saw the girls staring at them, stepping out of the way for Rinoa's car. His brows knitted into a frown and he pulled his own sunglasses down to shield his eyes. He leaned in and gave Rinoa's cheek a kiss. "Onward, Jeeves," he said.

She gave him a slight nudge with her shoulder as she pulled onto the street. "Oh, what, I'm your chauffer now? Asshole."

"You're whatever you want to be," he said. "I don't judge."

The freeway was fairly empty, only a small amount of cars heading northbound. It was now Summer Vacation, and Rinoa knew that most families would probably be heading southwest to bask along the beaches of Balamb. Sometimes the northbound freeway would be packed around this time, filled with people leaving work at the exact same time, but since it was Sunday the traffic was minimal. She glanced at the clock, it was just after four and before they reached the gas station she had received a text from Selphie saying that she and the rest of the band were just finishing packing up the van.

The plan was for the girls to stay in one hotel room and then tomorrow night she and Selphie would drive back down to Deling in Rinoa's car while Absolute Lore left to head back towards Esthar.

Rinoa felt that small tug within her chest. Squall would be leaving again tomorrow night. She couldn't believe that she only had yesterday, today, and a little bit of tomorrow with him. Inwardly she sucked it up and kept a steady grip along the steering wheel.

"I never asked, but is it ok that smoke in here?" he asked, his hand reaching for the pack that was still in the Thank You bag from the gas station.

"Yeah," she responded. "I just don't have an ashtray."

He nodded and stared at the pack in his hand. He blinked, remembering that he hadn't told her the cigarettes he smoked. But there in his grasp was the very brand he always had. He glanced at her from the corner of his eyes. _So perceptive,_ he thought. He slid a stick between his lips and quickly lit it, rolling down the window after shoving the lighter back into his pants. "Thanks for driving," he said.

"Well duh…how else would you get there?"

He smirked and leaned forward to fidget with the radio. "No, I mean thanks for actually driving. I've been wanting to prolong driving as much as possible before we drive off tomorrow night."

"Ah." Rinoa turned to look at him and gave him that heart warming smile. "Of course."

Soon the car was filled with the ending of a song that Rinoa had heard before, but the name of the band was escaping her at the moment. Squall leaned back into his seat and nodded his head rhythmically as he blew smoke through his lips.

Then, the smokey and breathy voice of Mecia crooned through the speakers. "Hey everyone, it's Mecia, thanks for joining us. So, as you know we had one of our amazing local bands here in the studio earlier today and in case you missed the interview we have it on our webpage, go to it, watch it, love it. I order you to. You'll also be able to watch our recording of their show from last night at The Rough Divide. Tonight they are playing up in Winhill before they trek off back East for the remainder of their tour with the equally wonderful Djin Theory. Right now, here is the newest track from Absolute Lore. Enjoy, my children."

The familiar strum of the guitar caused Rinoa to widen her eyes and glance over at Squall. She all but squealed in excitement as the words,

_Artist: Absolute Lore_

_Title: Stars_

scrolled across the screen of her radio. Her smile only grew wider when she saw that Squall was slightly grinning, his eyes staring at the screen while he casually sucked on his cigarette.

"Hey, it's me," he said coolly as the first pound of the drums vibrated through the stereo. He leaned forward after discarding his cigarette and turned the volume knob so the music poured into Rinoa's car and made her windows shake. Squall moved his body closer to Rinoa and nuzzled her neck as he sang, "_Do you wanna be my lover tonight?/We can leave everybody else behind/Say alright…_"

Rinoa giggled and playfully shoved him away. "I'm driving!"

Squall looked over at her, his eyes smiling and watching her adoringly as she danced in her seat. She shook her shoulders and bobbed her head to the beat, her mouth wide and bright as she sang along. When they passed a nearby car and were in the clear, he leaned in and placed kisses along her neck, pulling away only to play the drums against her dashboard.

"_Fall out of the atmosphere/Let's run…Run until we disappear/And never let them come and catch us/Never let them take away our stars…_" He leaned back into his seat and bobbed his head, closing his eyes and envisioning Zell working his fingers over the neck of his guitar during the solo.

He thought to when he and Zell wrote the composition for the song. It was just like how Quistis said it sometimes happened. Squall was tapping a beat against his knee for a few minutes before Zell came in and started singing his own riffs. Without instruments they created Zell's solo.

"I take it you like this song?" he asked Rinoa. "You know all the words."

Rinoa laughed and gave his cheek a quick pinch before focusing back onto the road. "I love it!" she said. "Every time I hear it I just get pumped!"

Squall leaned over the center console and rested his forehead against Rinoa's shoulder. "I'm glad you like this song."

He said it so softly that Rinoa hardly heard him. She stole a quick glance at him and saw that his eyes were closed, his long eyelashes dark crescents against his skin. Rinoa moved her eyes back to the road and kept them there until the song had ended a new one began in its stead.

* * *

**Winhill**

When they arrived at Winhill, Rinoa pulled up to the hotel Squall had said they made the reservations for. As she parked he sighed and rubbed his palms over his eyes. "Aw man," he muttered, stepping out of the Cube and stretching his arms overhead. "Home sweet home."

Rinoa cocked her head and reached for her purse. "Huh?"

Squall closed the door behind him and scratched the back of his neck. "Winhill's my hometown," he told her.

"You were born here?" Rinoa asked.

Squall nodded, gesturing towards a bar down the road. "Yeah, that bar down there is the one that my mom owned."

Rinoa craned her neck to look at the sign. "The Limit?" she asked.

He narrowed his eyes, just now noticing the name that blazed across the building. "Uh…no. It used to be called The Wishing Star. Well, it's been under a few different owners over the last twenty some odd years so I'm sure it's gone through several names."

"You wanna check it out?"

He shrugged. "Sure, why not?"

As they walked through the doors of The Limit, Squall immediately scanned the area to see what was different. He hadn't been in this particular establishment in years, the last time he came in the owners at the time had tried to turn it into one of those bars that sold dry chicken wings served by beautiful women in low cut tops and neon shorts. Basically, it was one of those places that people did not go to for the food. Now it appeared to be run by an older couple that was focused on making it a quiet little dive.

Squall escorted Rinoa to the bar and pulled out the stool for her.

"What can I get you two?" asked the bartender, a woman in her sixties with a dark blue scarf wrapped around her head. She finished drying off the tumbler in her hand and set it on the glass shelf behind her.

"Uh, I'll take a pale ale and a shot of Jack." He looked over to Rinoa. "You?"

"I'll just take a sangria."

"Sure, what kind, sweetie? We just got in our seasonal berries so we've got blueberry sangria, peach sangria, and even a pomegranate."

"Ooh…a peach one, please."

The woman nodded and hustled away. "You got it."

Rinoa glanced around the area and noticed the staircase near the back of the building. "Is this one of those old time buildings where people lived above the establishment? I remember doing a photoshoot for a restaurant where the owners actually owned the upstairs units and lived there."

Squall glanced behind her and nodded. "Yeah. Upstairs was a two bedroom apartment equipped with a kitchen, full bathroom, and a den." He exhaled a soft laugh as he tried to think back as far as he could remember. "I only remember the layout because Ellone had drawn it out for me before when she was telling me stories about our mother."

The drinks arrived and Rinoa sipped as she watched Squall throw back the shot. She lowered her lashes for a moment and gently nudged his calf with her foot. "What do you remember about your mother?" she asked. "You told me she passed away when you were young, but you have to remember _something._" Rinoa pressed her lips together and dared a quick glance at him. When she saw he was only staring out at the shelves of glass bottles behind the bar, she winced. "I'm sorry," she whispered, bringing up her glass. "Never mind…we don't need to—"

"Her hands," he said lowly.

Rinoa turned her head, her glass still up by her lips. "What about her hands?"

"They were always so cold," he said. "She was always cold…always wore some big sweater and jeans."

"Was it because she was sick?" Rinoa asked, her nails quietly clinking against her glass.

"Probably." He took a long swallow from his beer. "It'd make sense." He sighed and stared out ahead of him. His eyes landed upon a photograph just across from the bar and he frowned. "Excuse me, miss?" He waved to the bartender and pointed towards the framed picture. "Could I see that picture a moment?"

The woman nodded and plucked it from the shelf. "Sure hun," she said. "Those were the original owners. They started this business from the ground up almost thirty years ago." The woman sighed as she started to hand the picture frame to Squall. "That poor family, such a tragedy." Before the frame left her fingers her eyes scanned over the faces beneath the glass. The woman paused, looking intently at Squall just then. "Wait…" She set the picture down in front of him.

Squall locked eyes with the woman for a few beats before taking the frame in his hands.

Rinoa leaned in and looked at the three smiling figures. There was a man and a woman, most likely in their mid-twenties, standing in front of the building she and Squall were currently in. The Wishing Star had previously been a dark red brick building with black iron bars around the windows.

The Limit was still a brick building but it had been painted gray many years prior, some of the muted red showing through chips and cracks. The original sign had been painted on a large wooden slab, now the bar's name was proudly displayed in lights.

The man in the photo was grinning, a small child clinging to his leg. He stared into the camera with dark green eyes and had a proud arm thrown around the shoulders of the woman beside him. The woman was tall and had long, ash brown hair pulled back into a high ponytail. She wore a chunky, pale gray cable-knit sweater over dark blue jeans that were shoved into brown motorcycle boots. In the photo the sun was shining and the air looked warm, the woman's outfit seemed out of place, especially since the little child was wearing a pink romper and the man wore a plain white t-shirt and faded blue jeans. But despite looking bundled up and overdressed in Summer, the woman was smiling brightly and her blue eyes shone like sapphires.

Rinoa looked up at Squall, trying to decipher the expression that displayed on his face. But he only stared at the woman, hardly blinking as he traced a finger over the corner of the frame.

"Are…you related to her?" the bartender asked him.

His eyes flickered towards her for a moment before aiming back at the woman in the picture. "She's my mom."

The woman sucked in a breath and placed a hand over her heart. She looked over to Rinoa and gave her a soft smile. "You don't have many pictures of her, do you kiddo?" she asked Squall.

Slowly he shook his head. "No."

"We have a tradition here, all the owners take a picture in front of the bar and we keep the pictures here on our shelves with the bottles." The woman tilted her head. "You know, I have a photo copier in the office, why don't I make you a copy of that?"

Squall lifted his gaze. "Would you?"

"Absolutely. I didn't know the family personally, but I do remember when this place used to be The Wishing Star." She took the frame from his hands. "I'll be right back." She gestured for another bartender to cover her post and bustled off.

Rinoa gently took Squall's hand and gave his fingers a squeeze. "That was your mother," she whispered. "I didn't know you were a spitting image of her."

Squall chuckled and laced his fingers with hers. "Are you saying I'm pretty?"

Rinoa laughed and gently nudged him with her shoulder. "You're beautiful," she told him. "Just like your mother. I see a lot of her in you." When he gave her a skewed look that told her he wasn't entirely sure if she was teasing him or not, she laid her hand upon his thigh. "I'm serious!" she laughed. "I mean, you and Ellone do look alike because you have similar coloring but…from looking at the photograph I can see that you took more after your mother and she took after her father. I'm assuming that the man in the photo was _her_ father…"

Squall nodded. "Viktor." He sighed and ran his fingers through his hair before he started talking again. "My mom married her high school sweetheart right after graduation," he told her. "She had Ellone immediately after. Things went fine for a while but then Ellone's dad passed away when she was about eight."

Rinoa thought about how the bartender had mentioned 'tragedy' when she spoke about the original owners. "How terrible…what happened to him?"

"Well after he helped our mom open up The Wishing Star he started working for a business firm that apparently had very high stress levels." Squall shifted in his seat and cracked his knuckles. "One of his coworkers went a little bezerk and went on a shooting spree."

Rinoa's eyes widened and she nearly sent her sangria toppling over the counter's edge. "Are…are you serious?"

"Yeah. He shot like six people and two of them died—one of them was Viktor."

"Holy shit."

Squall nodded. "Yeah…" he said lowly, bringing up his beer to his lips.

"Wow…do you know anything about your dad? I mean, Ellone must have met him because she was older?"

He gave her that slight, wry smile. "What, is this an interrogation?"

Rinoa paled. "I'm sorry," she blurted out. "I just…I only wanted…fuck."

Gently he ran the back of his fingers over her cheek, his thumb softly grazing over her bottom lip. "It's fine," he assured. "I knew more about you in the first week that I met you, didn't I? It's been a couple of months now…you're probably curious as hell."

Rinoa narrowed her eyes at him. There he went again, seeing right through her with those sharp, gorgeous blue eyes of his. _Know it all…_ she thought.

The bartender came back with a photocopy of the picture and handed it to Squall. "Sorry I don't have a frame," she said.

"It's alright, thank you, I appreciate it." He held the thin paper between his fingers and his brows furrowed as he tried to think of the best way to fold it up to fit into his wallet.

Rinoa gently plucked it from his hands. "Don't fold it," she said, pulling up her purse and producing a small notebook. "I'll hang onto it in here so it doesn't get wrinkled." She slid it between two blank pages and nestled the notebook back into her purse for safekeeping.

"Ellone doesn't really remember my dad," Squall continued, running a finger down the side of his glass. "All she can remember was that he was in the military and was passing through Winhill for about a week. My mom still owned the pub at the time he had come through here. Some time during that week he was in town my mom got pregnant with me. Ellone said she never saw him again. She doesn't even remember his name…only that he had long black hair."

Rinoa ran her fingers through Squall's—rich brown—hair and smiled. "That's pretty generic," she said. "Do you think you'll try to find him one day?"

Squall shrugged. "Maybe one day. I've gone almost twenty-six years without him, I could go a few more." His phone started ringing and he pulled his hand from hers to reach for the interrupting contraption. "Yeah?"

"We just pulled up," said Zell on the other line. "Where you at?"

"The Wishing Star…I mean, The Limit."

"Got it."

A moment later the bar's entrance opened up and in walked in the remainder of Absolute Lore, along with Selphie. The tiny brunette honed in on Rinoa and Squall at the bar and immediately broke into a sprint, hopping onto the barstool to the left of Rinoa and sliding an arm around her shoulders.

"Well, hello," Rinoa sang, affectionately patting Selphie's hands. "How was the drive?"

"Ugh. _Long._ After this did you wanna come back to the hotel with me and get ready?"

"Sure!"

The boys turned their backs and broke into a conversation about set lists. Quistis tapped Irvine's shoulder and told him to just let her know the order of the songs so she wouldn't play the wrong song and separated to join Selphie and Rinoa.

"Did you know that this bar used to be owned by Squall's mom?" Rinoa asked.

Quistis nodded. "Well, yeah. Oh? Did he just now tell you?"

Rinoa shrugged. "Still getting to know each other," she said.

Quistis leaned in across the bar and laid a hand upon Rinoa's wrist. "Hey, just give it some time," she whispered. "You both got a lot on your plates right now but…I can tell you one thing." She glanced behind Rinoa to make sure Squall wasn't listening. When she saw that he was getting his ear chatted off by Zell, she grinned. "He is _nuts_ about you."

Selphie's eyes widened and she sent Rinoa a muted—but still very much excited—squeal. She bobbed her head in agreement and clutched Rinoa's arm just above the elbow. "I second that," she whispered. "Irvine told me that Squall watches the video of you dancing nearly _every _night."

Rinoa chuckled but rolled her eyes. "I already knew that," she said. "He told me. It's for spank bank material, I'm sure."

"Oh for fuck's sake…no!" Quistis gave Rinoa a little pinch. "Guys don't _need_ to look at a pretty girl for that shit. Sure, it helps, but that's what porn is for. Why would he watch a small, ten second snippet of you shaking your hips—fully clothed, I might add—when he could watch a twenty minute video of some chick getting her ass pounded if all he cared about was cumming?" She crinkled her nose in quiet laughter when a slight flush crept along Rinoa's cheeks. "The point is…he'd rather be focused on _you_ when he's blowing his load."

Selphie nodded. "Yeah!" she concurred. "Isn't that romantic? Despite the crudeness?"

Rinoa practically snorted with laughter, capturing the attention of the boys behind her. She clamped her palm over her lips and spun around, her brown eyes large as they gawked at her.

"Everything alright, ladies?" Irvine asked, arching a brow in wonder and then narrowing his eyes when he saw Selphie practically squirming in her seat from trying not to burst out giggling. "What?"

"Nothing!" Rinoa said quickly, her lips pressing together as she tried to keep herself from laughing. But Quistis's vivid description left heated images in her brain and all she could imagine was Squall with his dick in his hands, his eyes closed and his throat working, his teeth bared as he reached his peak—which was then replaced with the image of her on her knees before him…much like she was just before they left her apartment after she packed a bag.

Quistis slid from her seat and draped her arms around Rinoa's shoulders. "None of your business," she said. "I was just telling Rinoa about how tiring it is being on the road with three sexually repressed men. Ugh, seriously girl, do _not_ aim a black light into the van. It'll light up like a Christmas tree."

Rinoa couldn't stop herself then. The laughter practically exploded from her lips and she nearly fell over the countertop.

Zell threw back his head and howled. "Oh man, you're _hilarious!_"

"Says the one who's been having a secret affair with Hans in the tour bus," Squall said, slowly sipping the remainder of his beer. "Supposedly, of course."

Rinoa turned her head in Quistis's arms. "What? I thought that was a rumor?" She darted inquisitive stares between Squall and the tall blonde.

Quistis only shrugged but the smirk on her lips remained. "_Allegedly,_" she corrected. "There is only proof of us making out. _Once._"

"Oh really?" Rinoa asked. "Do tell."

"Oh, there's not much to tell," Quistis chuckled, releasing her hold on Rinoa. "That was years ago. I think that same night I made out with Fujin."

She spoke of it so casually, so nonchalant and so carefree that it was almost impossible to not smile. Everyone at the bar broke into a fit of laughter and then when the front door opened up again, they turned and raised their arms in welcome. "Speak of the devil!" Quistis roared.

Fujin stepped through the entryway and let out a booming hello. "What, were my ears supposed to be burning?" she asked, making her way towards Quistis and giving her a hug.

"Possibly."

"Hey girl!" Fujin said to Selphie, leaning in to give her a friendly peck to the cheek.

"Hey now," Irvine warned. "Don't be doing that to my girl. You might give me some ideas." He wagged his eyebrows and fastened a charming grin to his face when the two ladies rolled his eyes at him.

"Dog," Fujin laughed, her eye suddenly coming over Rinoa. "The photographer!" she exclaimed. She outstretched a hand. "I have seen your work—you are _phenomenal._ Really."

Rinoa preened at the compliment and her cheeks started to hurt from smiling so much. "Oh, thank you! I can't wait to see you guys play tonight, I had to leave before your set yesterday because I had work early this morning."

"Well, we'll be sure not to disappoint!" said the man behind Fujin, gently nudging her out of the way so he could introduce himself. "Hi there, I'm Hans. Pleasure." He took Rinoa's hand in his and gracefully pulled it up to his lips.

In complete shock, Rinoa only sat there with her mouth hanging open. "Oh, well…um, hi! Rinoa." When she got her hand back she was shaking from the laughter that was bubbling within her.

Quistis intervened and shoved Hans away with the toe of her sneaker. "Back off," she teased. "You'll scare her away with your pushiness." When Hans tipped his head at her and stepped away to mingle with Zell and Irvine, Quistis shot a look to Squall and blew him a split-second kiss.

He only raised his brows at her in quick acknowledgement and downed the rest of his beer. His eyes traveled to Rinoa and he offered her a slow and simmering grin when she looked at him. He lowered his gaze to check the time on his phone and he cleared his throat before saying to Zell, "We should get going."

Reflexively Zell looked to his watch. "Yep. Alright, band members of all shapes and brain sizes, we gotta go."

Squall threw down a few bills to cover his and Rinoa's drinks. As he stepped off his stool he leaned towards her ear. "I'll see you after?"

"Of course," she responded. She hopped off the barstool and casually brushed by him. "I brought a dress, by the way," she whispered to him before walking off with Selphie. Even though she forced herself to keep her gaze ahead of her as she exited the bar, she could feel the heat of Squall's stare trickling over her body.

* * *

Selphie watched as Rinoa slipped into the crocheted blue lace dress and pull the thin straps over her shoulders. The brunette narrowed her green eyes and twisted her lips into a knowing scowl. "Now…how did we come to this?" she pondered aloud, stepping into a pale yellow sundress.

"Hm?" Rinoa paused, her hands behind her back as she clasped the zipper. "What?"

"It's funny…only two months ago you were making fun of me for wearing a skirt to a show. You said it was impractical."

"I said it was impractical for _me_ to wear a skirt because I was _working._ I can't really run around and jump and dangle off fixtures to take shots if I'm in a skirt!" Rinoa zipped herself up and adjusted the bust of her dress. "I'm not working tonight."

Selphie glanced to Rinoa's purse. "But you still brought your camera…"

"Oh, just a regular point and shoot. Not my fancy stuff."

"Uh huh…who are you dressing up for? A tall, brooding, roguishly handsome brunette who apparently can't stop jerking it to your video?"

Rinoa squealed and hurled a pillow at her. "Selphie!"

"What? He's a guy! They do that nearly every day! They have to—really—or else it'll get backed up or something."

Rinoa let out an aggravated growl and scooped up her makeup bag. "That sounds like an excuse! You know, like, 'Aw come on baby don't be like that. Finish me off, don't let me have blue balls!'" she called over her shoulder as she walked to the bathroom and flicked on the light. The hotel room they reserved was large, perfectly sized for the three girls except for the fact that there were only two beds. Selphie had previously mentioned that she may sneak away to Irvine's room just in case, since there were three beds.

Quistis came in through the door, a bright pink duffle bag thrown over her shoulder. "Alright, you beautiful creatures! Help me pick out an outfit." She dropped her bag onto the bed closest to her and unzipped it. She pulled out perfectly folded articles of clothing that been organized inside the bag like precise puzzle pieces. "Let's see…" She looked the girls over and cocked her head. "Shall I join the dress crew over here?"

"Do it!" Rinoa shouted, digging through her makeup bag to find her eyeliner.

Selphie picked up a rose colored maxi slip dress. "Is this a dress or a nightie?" she asked, watching as the fabric practically fell over her fingers like water.

Quistis took the dress from her and held it out at arm's length. "Tonight I say dress!" She quickly stripped out of her yoga pants and band tee and shimmied the dress over her head. She entered the bathroom and checked her reflection for a moment before shouting through the open door, "Hey Selphie, toss me that black bra will you?"

"You mean the one that could moonlight as a flotation device?"

"That's the one. Bitch." She caught the bra and turned away from Rinoa for modesty as she quickly tugged the top half of her dress down so she could change bras. When she turned back towards the mirror she adjusted her straps and cupped her breasts through her dress.

Rinoa fanned her eyes as she let her eyeliner dry. "Good lord woman," she murmured. "What a change."

Quistis laughed and nodded as she looked at her now ample cleavage in the mirror. "It's all for show," she said. "I must say that I do love how it makes dresses look on me." She ran her hands up the back of her head and piled her hair atop her skull, twisting this way and that as she looked at her reflection.

Selphie came into the bathroom and hopped on the counter so she could be right in front of the mirror. "How are you planning on doing your makeup tonight?" she asked Quistis, dabbing foundation onto a sponge.

"Dunno. Should I go for vampy lips with a neutral eye or smokey eye with nude lips…or full on starlet with all the toppings?" She glanced over at Rinoa and arched a brow at the precise eyeliner she had drawn. "You could fly away with those wings," she said. "I love it."

Rinoa laughed. "I don't normally wing them out that far…but tonight I say fuck it."

"Yes, fuck it!" Quistis giggled and ran back to her duffle bag for her makeup case. "Just fuck it…fuck it _all. _No rules tonight, just whatever we feel like." She leaned towards the mirror and started brushing on her makeup.

After about forty minutes the girls were ready and were in giggling fits in front of the mirror. Rinoa had tied up Quistis's hair into a messy bun, wisps of gold spilling from the topknot. She stuck in the hair pick that Quistis had handed her, the blood red gem dangling just above her crown.

"Rinoa, wear this," Quistis demanded, pulling a choker from her bag.

Rinoa lifted up her hair and watched their reflection as Quistis secured a black leather choker around her neck. The charm in the center was likened to an old fashioned cameo, except that the woman's profile was that of a skull.

"Cute," said Rinoa, her fingertips gently grazing over the embossed resin. "We ready?"

Selphie quickly sprayed one last coat of hair spray over her hair and fluffed up the ends. "I do believe so!" She hopped off the counter and wrapped an arm around Quistis's waist as they all posed in front of the full length mirror that rested on the wall outside of the bathroom.

"Too good for mere mortal men," Quistis said with her dark lips in a pout. She grabbed her phone and aimed it at the mirror. "Look hot, bitches!" she ordered.

After a few shots she picked one she liked and immediately posted it.

**ALtrepetastic: **Your #squadgoals are our #squadreality. Love my girls **#****theoriginalselfie** and **#****RHphotography**

"God we are so damn cute," Rinoa said.

* * *

"Hot damn!" Irvine whistled, stepping away from the mirror after adjusting his belt. "The little ladies have certainly enjoyed dressing up today." He quickly added a heart to the picture and scrolled down to see another shot of the three, this one shot from an upward angle and displayed the girls blowing kisses to the camera.

**theoriginalselfie: **Ready for a spectacular night with these hotties!

Beneath that picture was one posted by Rinoa, this one had Rinoa in the center while Selphie and Quistis leaned in to give her cheeks a kiss.

**RHphotography: **Woman crush Wednesday comes on a Sunday with these two ladies! **#****theoriginalselfie #ALtrepetastic**. Can't wait to see **#****ALofficial** play tonight!

Squall lay on the bed, having been dressed for quite a while and was patiently waiting for Zell to finish styling his long blonde hair into the perfect mountain of spikes. He scrolled over the photographs the girls had posted and his brows lifted. Instantly his eyes drifted over the dress that Rinoa wore, the smile that glittered across her face, and the way that her eyes crinkled while she laughed.

He couldn't wait to see her in person.

He felt someone staring a hole into his head and he lifted his gaze to see Irvine grinning at him with that infamous Cheshire Cat grin. "What?" Squall muttered.

"Can I come to your wedding?" Irvine chuckled.

Squall responded by hurling a pillow at that grinning face.

* * *

**A/N: Hi! Next piece will be the show, I promise, still piecing it together! Had a little fun focusing on the ladies in this chapter =) Thanks again for all the reviews and new followers! xoxoxoxox to you all!**


	24. Chapter 24

_S.L: I like your dress_

_R.H: Good._

_S.L: We're about to set up. I'll meet you at the bar after._

_R.H: I'll be there._

Rinoa slid her phone back into her purse with a slow, curving grin playing on her lips. He had seen the pictures that were posted. A small giggle bubbled within her and she shyly brushed her fingers over her lips. She turned and looked over to Selphie, who was dabbing her lips with some chapstick.

"Need some?" Selphie asked, handing the little pink tube to Rinoa, who accepted.

Not long after, Absolute Lore was on the stage and filling the venue with their bone shaking and feet stomping chords, slams of the drums, and gravally words. Rinoa and Selphie had managed to get to the front of the stage, but stayed off to the side so they were in front of Quistis.

"We love you!" they shouted to her, even though they knew the likelihood of her actually hearing them was minimal. Before they knew it, they had already gone through their first four songs, and Rinoa was panting from her excited movements and dancing in place.

Then the all too familiar strum of _Stars_ began and she pressed her lips together. She felt her heart thunder and pound, felt her cheeks grow warm as her eyes instantly sought out Squall. She couldn't see him clearly, could only see quick flashes of his brown hair flailing as he crashed his cymbals and beat the skins.

Then, a smiling and leering face dropped down in front of her, and Rinoa let out a shocked yelp when she registered Quistis's red lips giving her that sultry smirk. The blonde vixen ran a pink tongue over her pearly teeth and sent Rinoa a wink before standing tall and clutching her bass seductively close to her pelvis.

Feeling eyes boring into the side of her face, Rinoa turned and found Selphie grinning a grin that would make the Cheshire Cat proud. Without saying a word, Selphie only bumped Rinoa with her hip and turned her knowing green eyes back to the stage.

At the concluding crash of cymbals, Rinoa and Selphie jumped onto the balls of their feet and screamed, clapping their hands together madly. Selphie placed two fingers into her mouth and released a piercing whistle.

After a few more songs Irvine cupped the mic between his hands and let out a long breath. "Thank you, thank you," he gasped. "Wow. Holy shit." He panted and tried to catch his breath as he looked over to the rest of his bandmates. "Goddamn these are some amazing people…thank you, _thank you_ Winhill!" he shouted. When the chanting and roars came to a pause, Irvine let out a breath and spoke again. "Last song of the night," he announced. "Now, this one is something I think you will all recognize…it was originally written by one of the greatest rock bands known to man."

Before the crowd could even begin to roar, Zell started with soft little ripples over his strings before diving in afterwards with stronger chords. Quistis vocalized in the background, her eyes closed as she let her fingers dance over her bass. Then Squall's drums pounded, a slow, almost spiritual beat.

Then the music came faster, Quistis whipped her head in a circular motion, her long blonde hair flailing in a halo of gold. Squall surged forward on his throne, his arms crossing over the other intricately but never getting caught.

"_Ooh…a storm is threat'ning/My very life today/If I don't get some shelter/Oh yeah, I'm gonna fade away,_" Irvine sang, his words a heavy, quick-paced growl. Quistis came up beside him, her lips close to his as she sang along into the mic, "_War, children, it's just a shot away/It's just a shot away/War, children, it's just a shot away/It's just a shot away…_" Quistis pulled back, her teeth clenched as she let the words pour through her mouth like silk in contrast to the rough texture of Irvine's voice.

"_Ooh…see the fire is sweepin'/Our very street today/Burns like a red coal carpet/Mad bull lost your way…_" Keeping the mic between them, Irvine angled himself so that he and Quistis stood at the very front of the stage, looking right at each other as they let the gritty words flow. "_War, children, it's just a shot away/It's just a shot away/War, children, it's just a shot away/It's just a shot away!_"

Ever much the cowboy, Irvine pulled away from the mic and produced a gold harmonica from his back pocket, placing it to his lips and blowing a quick tune, stomping his booted foot. Zell lowered himself onto the ground, his back arching as he strummed the guitar so close to his body.

Nodding his head, Irvine walked around the stage, his arms raising as he demanded their followers to vocalize their excitement. "Make some noise!" he screamed.

While Zell continued his solo, Quistis grabbed the mic, letting out a course howl. "_Rape, murder/It's just a shot away/It's just a shot away/Rape, murder!/It's just a shot away/It's just a shot away/Rape, murder!/It's just a shot away/It's just a shot away!_"

Irvine slid in behind her, an arm slipping around her waist with such skill that he didn't hinder her bass playing. "_The flood's is threat'ning/My very life today/Gimme, gimme shelter/Or I'm gonna fade away._" Quistis lifted her shoulders as Irvine embraced her, her lips curving into a grin as she belted out a note. "_War, children, it's just a shot away/It's just a shot away/It's just a shot away/It's just a shot away/It's just a shot away!_"

Irvine released her and twirled her, spinning her around so that they faced each other again, the mic back in between them. "_I tell you love, sister, it's just a kiss away/It's just a kiss away/It's just a kiss away/It's just a kiss away/It's just a kiss away._" Quistis leaned in and planted a big, fat, sisterly kiss to Irvine's nose before breaking away and spinning on her heels. "_Kiss away/Kiss away!_"

Zell slid across the stage on his knees, his wide open thighs surrounding her calves as he continued another extension of his solo. Still plucking her bass, Quistis bent at the waist and kissed him square on the lips. "_Kiss away/Kiss away!_"

The song ended and the venue exploded into an uproar.

* * *

Rinoa stood by the bar and waited at the edge for the bartender, who was busy scuttling around and making several different drinks. He took note of Rinoa and sent her an acknowledging nod to signal that he'd be with her in a moment. She responded with a slight wave and let her eyes drift over the bottles as she waited.

The patron in the stool beside her swiveled around, preparing to hop off, but paused when he saw her. "Great show, huh?" he asked, a wide smile cutting into his handsome face.

Rinoa gave him a polite smile and nodded. "Yeah, they're so talented."

The guy ran a knuckle over the slight scruff that peppered his jaw and made an attempt at giving her a very casual and nonchalant once over. Rinoa squashed the urge to roll her eyes. "Yeah, I like the way the singer does his vocal range. It's a pretty good variance, being able to actually sing and then transition into a growl."

Rinoa felt the same way about Irvine's singing abilities, so it came easy to her to agree with the man. "Yes, I feel the same way."

"Mitchell," said the man, outstretching his hand.

Rinoa hesitated for a moment, but since politeness was second nature to her, she gave his hand a quick shake. "Rinoa," she said.

"Pleasure." He was about to say something else but the bartender leaned over and cut in between them.

"What can I get you, Miss?" he asked.

"Just a Jack and Coke, please," she answered, her eyes smiling at him in thanks.

"Got it. Be right back."

Mitchell turned a charming smile to Rinoa, his dark green eyes crinkling at the corners. "You come here often?"

Rinoa tried not to laugh. Did that line _ever_ work on someone? "No," she answered. "My friends are playing tonight."

"Nice! It's a pretty cool spot."

Rinoa smiled tightly but nodded. "Yep!"

The bartender returned with Rinoa's drink and she reached inside her purse for her wallet.

"I got this one," Mitchell said to the bartender, giving Rinoa another grin. Perhaps if she had no…_attachment_ to a certain brunette drummer with an intense and steely glare, she _might_ have been interested, but…that was a very, _very_ slight "might."

"Oh, no, it's fine," Rinoa insisted, placing a few bills onto the counter. "I buy my own drinks, but thank you!"

"How about I buy the next round then?" Mitchell said with a wink.

The smile started to disintegrate and suddenly a heavily tatted arm wrapped around her, strapping over her collarbone like a band and pulling her tight against a solid chest. The sharp spikes of ink that spiraled across the flesh and stopped just at the wrist acted like a barricade, a protective thorny wall. "Alphonse! My man!" Zell's blonde spikes came into Rinoa's peripheral view and she saw him lean against the bar to speak to the bartender.

The bartender gave Zell a slow nod and a slight grin when he darted a glance to Mitchell, taking note that his face suddenly took on a defeated pallor. "What can I do you for, Dincht?"

"Two pints of lager, my good man." He looked over to Rinoa and shot her that boyish smile that showed a lot of teeth. "Having a good night, Rinoa?"

"Always, Zell."

He leaned close to her ear and said, "Squall got caught up with Quistis and some fans wanting a picture. The Knight sent me to fetch his darling Princess."

Rinoa bit back a laugh and gave Zell's strong arm an appreciative pat. His thick fingers clutched her right shoulder and kept a hold on her while Mitchell was still staring. "I nearly stomped on your instep," she said to him, turning her lips to his ear so he could hear her over the loud music.

Zell chuckled and nodded at Alphonse when he returned with two tall plastic cups. "How much do I owe you, brother?"

Alphonse only clicked his tongue. "On the house, Dincht, you know that." He gave him a quick salute and tipped his head to Rinoa.

"Shit…you guys always treat us so well. Much love!" Zell spun Rinoa around so she was in front of him, her drink in her hands. "Later!" He scooped up the drinks and ushered Rinoa through the crowd.

"Can't say I needed rescuing!" Rinoa protested.

"Nobody said you did," Zell returned. "But I saw the way that guy was looking at you from a mile away. He would have tried to charm the dress right off you no matter how politely you continued to turn him down." He leaned in closer. "And I can't have Mr. Leonhart upset, now can I?"

Rinoa laughed and shook her head, easily weaving through the mass of people until Zell brought her to where Squall and Quistis stood with a few teenagers near the middle of the floor. Quistis was in the middle of the small crowd, her right arm around Squall's shoulders while the other was behind the grinning Mohawked teen to her left. Two girls in giggling fits that neared hysteria were clutching Squall, one of them was nervously chewing her bottom lip as they waited for the picture to be taken. Rinoa practically hiccupped in laughter, Squall's face was priceless. His lips displayed the faintest of smiles but his eyes heatedly _glared_ into the camera, all but vocally demanding the photographer to _hurry the fuck up._

Quistis gave a laugh that was thick and velvety, her fingers suddenly pinching Squall's cheek. "I didn't give _you_ a kiss!" she said.

Squall's eyes narrowed. "Don't you dare," he growled.

"Smoochies!" She wrapped her arms around his neck, laughing the entire time and obviously enjoying the fact that she was making him embarrassed. "But I'm your special lady!" she cried, planting quick little kisses along his cheek and leaving streaks of lipstick amongst the stubble.

When the photographer lowered the camera, Squall quickly slipped away from the group and took the tall cup from Zell like it was a trophy. "Thanks," he said before throwing it back, nearly finishing it all.

"Attending to your adoring fans?" Rinoa teased, gently nudging his side with her elbow.

"Quistis and Irvine are more so the ones who like taking pictures," he said, using the sleeve of his jacket to wipe away Quistis's lipstick. "She's slowly losing her shyness." He glanced behind him, shaking his head when he saw that the teens were now crowded around the blonde, gushing and fawning over her. "Seems they started a fanclub."

Rinoa giggled until he gave her a look, signifying that he wasn't joking. "Oh, wait—you're serious?"

"Yeah," Zell added. "They call themselves the Trepeies."

Rinoa let out a sputtered laugh and tried to cover it up by sipping her drink. "Oh wow."

"She's _loving_ it though," said Zell, grinning.

"How'd you like the show?" Squall asked Rinoa, draining the rest of his beer.

Rinoa slapped a hand over her heart and let out a sigh. "_Wow,_" she whispered. "I'm blown away."

Squall tossed the empty plastic cup into the garbage can behind him. When he turned back towards her she felt the lump within her throat grow larger, her breath hitch, and her lips part in a slight gasp when she saw that his stormy eyes thundered, practically crackling with heat as he gave her body a once over.

The look he gave her was more lust-filled and spoke of vulgar promises than the one that Mitchell had given her…yet this one was much more readily accepted. She felt her mouth water as she thought of the way he would look at her, the way his eyes would burn—_devour her_—as he hovered over her, his elbows on either side of her head while his fingers caressed her scalp…

Rinoa smothered a moan that rose within her throat, her teeth gently biting into her lower lip as she steadily held his piercing gaze.

Silently he rose his hand towards her, his fingers lightly grazing over her chin for the briefest moment. "You look breathtaking," he said to her.

"So do you."

He tilted his head slightly, causing a strand of brown to fall in front of those intense eyes of his. His lips upturned into the slightest smirk and he ran his fingers through his hair, pushing his bangs back.

Rinoa felt the tips of her fingers tingle, itching to dive into his hair and pull him closer. To keep her public behavior in check, she instead raised her drink to her lips and took a long swallow. The cool liquid calmed her a bit, but she still felt her skin flush when Squall's eyes dipped lower to gaze at her lips, now wet from the whiskey.

The lights overhead dimmed and the crowd around them blossomed into a screaming, cheering tangle of limbs.

"Hurry up and finish your drink," Squall said, gripping her arm just above the elbow. "Or risk losing it to some punk moshing."

Heeding his advice, she quickly chugged down the rest of her drink. The whiskey burned its way down her throat, diluted only slightly by the flavor of Coke. When she lowered the plastic cup he took it from her hands and disposed of it into the garbage can.

"Ready to watch the rest of the show?" Quistis asked, sliding an arm around Rinoa's waist and tugging her towards the front of the stage.

"Yes!" She gave Squall a quick smile and dutifully followed Quistis through the crowd.

They didn't stand quite at the front, about three rows of scrunched up fans were in front of them, but they were close enough to see Royce's fingers dance over his bass strings, close enough to see the crisp lines of ink that were etched into Hans's brawny arms, along with the little heart tattoo that peeked out just above the low hem of Fujin's pants.

"Wow, she's amazing!" Rinoa couldn't help but stare in awe at the woman on the stage. The movements of her hips and the thrashing of her silver hair captivated the audience. Rinoa looked up at Squall, who had moved to her left, his arms braced to protect her in the instance that some fans got too enthusiastic with their wild movements.

Fujin cupped the mic close to her mouth as she sang, her hips swaying and dipping to the rhythm. "_Little girl, you like it loud/Come alive in the middle of the crowd/You wanna scream/You wanna shout/Get excited when the lights go down…_" She shimmied her hips, leaning forward with her arm outstretched towards the crowd, fingertips grazing over the hands that reached for her. "_At the rock show…you'll be right in the front row…_" She stood up straight, a pointed claw sweeping over the crowd. "_Heart and soul, they both know/It's where you gotta be…_"

Hans came up behind her, his fingers effortlessly moving over the strings, his eyes cast downward as he watched his fingers work. He had tied his long strands of caramel hair into a topknot, exposing the shaved sides of his head and revealing the intricate geometric designs of ink that were hidden beneath.

Fujin bounced her hips back and forth, dancing in place. "_Little girl, there you are/All the lighters looking just like stars…_" She smiled and twirled her fingers in the air. "_Sing along, feel the sound/Take a ride on the hands of the crowd…_" Her eyes shut and her mouth dropped open as her voice changed from a soothing, silken croon to a gritty and throaty growl. "_Here it comes! The moment when/You know you'll never be the same again/Power chord, see the light/You found your place in the world tonight!_" She sank down to a crouch, her hand in her hair and mussing with the silver strands as she let the music envelope her. "_At the rock show/You'll be right in the front row/Heart and soul, they both know/It's where we gotta be/Yeah at the rock show/Getting high on the solo…so what if it's crazy?/That's gonna be me…_"

Hans's solo came up and Fujin moved behind him, moving her arms so liquidly as she danced beside Royce, who madly shook his dreads that had come loose from his bandanna. The crowd screamed and danced along as Hans sent powerful chords their way.

Fujin stepped back up to the front of the stage, her hips shaking in time to the jarring drum beat Esteban provided. "_This goes out to anyone/Whose heart beats like a kick drum/When a bitchin' riff comes/Knows the words to every line, every time,_" She pointed straight to a young woman in red who was singing along. "_And you know you gotta go get some, get pumped._" She clenched a fist and shouted, "_Find yourself and lose it/At the rock show/I'm lookin' at the front row…_" She leaned forward again and grasped the hand of one of the fans. "_Heart and soul, we both know/It's where we gotta be…_" She released the hand and held the mic so close to her lips as she ran her fingers through her hair. "_Yeah at the rock show/We're reaching for the high notes!_" She punched her fist in the air as she screamed. "_…So what if we're crazy?/You're coming with me…_" As she circled her hips she lowered her hand, her eyes seeking a face. Her gaze swept across Squall and as a smoldering grin crept onto her lips she pointed a ruby tipped nail in his direction. "_Yeah, you're coming with me…_" For a quick moment her finger beckoned at him and she sent him a lightning fast wink, the tip of her tongue darting out and caressing her Cupid's Bow.

A small, itching, scratching feeling of unease pinched at Rinoa's nerves. Around her she could feel time slow and the air become heavy. Though it only lasted a beat, she felt it grasp around her body like a wet blanket. Before she could stop herself, she glanced at Squall.

He was simply staring out at the band in front of him, it was hard to tell exactly where his eyes were focused at from her standing point. His arms were crossed over her chest and his stance almost seemed…_bored._ His lashes lowered and Rinoa quickly turned her face back towards the stage before he could catch her staring.

"_You're coming with me…So what if it's crazy?/It's where we gotta be…_" Then Fujin rested her hand upon her breast as she belted out the last verse. "_At the rock show…_"

The audience's cheers exploded into a frenzy of excited vocalization. The last strum of the guitar vibrated through the air and Fujin shyly covered her lips and turned away from the crowd as she prepared for the next song. With her head bobbing in time, she echoed the heavy beat that came from her drummer.

Rinoa blinked, her lids lowering as she tried to comprehend what she just saw. The woman on the stage shamelessly beckoned Squall. She had sent him a blatant, lust-filled message. Rinoa swallowed. What did this mean? Quistis always flirted with Squall and threw herself onto him and yet Rinoa felt no prickles of jealousy…so why was she feeling it now? _Perhaps because with Quistis you __**know**__ she isn't trying to fuck him…also, because she hits on __**you**__, _Rinoa told herself. _Oh god…what am I saying? He's a grown man he can do whatever he wants!_

A hand gently cupped her elbow and she shifted her head a fraction when she felt Squall lower his lips close to her ear. "I'm gonna go outside," he yelled over the music. When he pulled away he jerked his head to motion for her to follow.

Outside the air was crisp, cool, and refreshing in stark contrast to inside the club. Rinoa hadn't realized how stuffy it could get when one was surrounded by multitudes of fans completely hypnotized by the music that was offered. The temperature was nowhere near cold, but she found herself shivering at the sudden drop.

"Cold?" Squall asked, his voice slightly muffled as he spoke around the cigarette between his lips. Even though she shook her head at him, he paused in raising his lighter and quickly shrugged off the black jacket he wore.

"Oh, no, I'm fine," she promised.

Ignoring her, he draped the jacket over her shoulders and resumed lighting his cigarette. "Quistis is really coming out of her shell," he said.

Rinoa chuckled, her fingers running over the brass stud that adorned the cuff of his jacket. "Yeah. I mean, I'm used to seeing her like that…just not in front of a lot of people, mostly those she's comfortable with." She grinned as she thought to how the girls in the crowd squealed when Quistis planted kisses on Irvine and Zell on stage.

"Yeah, she likes to kiss people."

"Does she do that a lot? Like at your other shows?"

Squall shook his head. "Not really. Maybe with Zell a few times because Irvine is spoken for, but she and Zell have always had this overly flirtatious skit even though they've never done anything. It's gotten to the point where we don't notice anymore."

Rinoa couldn't help but smile. She thought back to when she and Squall first met and how he hardly spoke and now here he was telling her things about the band, even if they were small and "insignificant" little stories. "No hooking up with your bandmates?" she teased.

He exhaled a soft laugh and gave her a quick glance. "It's an unspoken rule: No fraternization within the band."

"But with other band members?" she asked with a grin, thinking to the rumors of the secret romance between Quistis and Hans.

The slight smirk wavered slightly, only for a moment, and Squall's eyes lifted back to catch her gaze for a heart beat before fluidly scanning over the crowd outside the club's entrance. "It's happened before."

The way he said it caused a sharp lurch within the pit of her stomach. It was gone almost instantly but her curiosity was snagged. _So cryptic…_she thought to herself. "Oh really?" she asked. "Has it now? Are you saying you _fraternized _with other band members?" She reached out and poked him in the stomach.

He made a slight scowl but gave a nod. "Yes."

"With who?" She was hoping she didn't sound desperate for information of his previous liasons, she truly was just curious. When he didn't answer and instead glanced back towards the club's entrance, where faint remnants of Fujin's singing could still be heard…her mouth popped into the shape of an 'o' and her eyes widened as if she had stumbled upon some hot gossip.

"Wait, you and Fujin have a history?"

Squall grimaced and let out a breath. As he raised the cigarette to his lips he lifted his other hand, rotating the wrist to make a vague gesture. "Not…really," he said.

Rinoa arched a brow and curled her lips to display her frustration at his 'answer.' "What the fuck does that even mean?" she laughed.

He shot her a look that stopped her laugh right in her throat. "What, you want details?" he muttered. "It was a long time ago."

The snarky response ignited a desire within Rinoa to create one as equally sharp. "Excuse me, but you were the one who blatantly asked if Seifer and I had _history_ after just a mere kiss. I put your dick in my mouth, I'm allowed to ask."

To her pleasure, her rebuttal caused Squall's eyes to widen just a fraction—but it was enough to show that her point had been vibrantly made. He took a long hit off of his cigarette before he finally nodded. "Fair enough."

Rinoa smirked and blew him a kiss. "It's not a terrible thing to ask," she said. "Besides when two people get into a rela…intimate situation together, it's not unheard of to know about sexual history." She felt her cheeks warm but she continued on. "I mean _obviously _neither of us were virgins when we met…you've got condoms at your apartment so to me that is a good sign because you like to play safe—at least with me, so yay."

Squall felt the corner of his lips upturn in amusement at Rinoa's rambling movements. She was so flustered, so agitated, so…adorable. Even though he understood her reasoning for them to open up about their sexual past, he felt that there was no need. He didn't know much about her previous lovers, only Seifer. As far as he was concerned, all the men Rinoa had been with were in the past and there they would stay, just as all the women he himself had been with.

"If you must know, my dick was also in her mouth. Once."

Rinoa blinked, her skin flushing in response to the bristling tone he was giving her. Though it didn't seem that his tone was directed at her, more so the situation. "That was all?" she asked quietly. "I mean…there was no sex?"

Squall shook his head and blew smoke through his lips, his eyes scanning over the crowd behind her. "No condom," he said.

Trying not to laugh, Rinoa managed out, "That seems to be a habit of yours."

Squall's expression changed and he gave her that eat-shit grin he displayed so well. He stubbed the cigarette beneath his boot and grabbed Rinoa's arm and pulled her in, not quite in his arms but close enough that he could watch the subtle change of desire form within her eyes. "When it comes to you, I will make sure I am fully stocked."

Rinoa released a squeak of a giggle and shoved him away. "You're so sweet."

He grinned and shoved his hand into his jeans. "Wanna go back in?"

Before she could answer, Irvine came from the entrance with his arm around Selphie's shoulder. "Hey!" he greeted as he walked over. "How'd you like the show, Rinoa? What'd you think of our cover?"

Rinoa smiled and gave Irvine a round of applause. "Wonderful! The Rolling Stones are precious and should not be fucked with, so I think it was quite the risk, but _good lord_ did you guys do a _fantastic_ rendition! Bravo!" She held up her hands and gave him three bows. "And I didn't know Quistis could sing!"

"Right? She surprised us all!" Irvine tightened his hold on Selphie and gave her ear a quick nuzzle. "To be honest…we all just found out about it a few weeks ago. We were all playing drunken Rock Band one night and Quistis got up, took the mic and just belted it out!"

"It took us some convincing to get her to sing at a live show," said Squall, nodding as he thought back to how Quistis literally tried to run out of the hotel room when Irvine mentioned that he wanted her to sing with him. "At first she was comfortable only with doing background vocalization on _Stars _and singing only during practicing. After last night's show she said she wanted to give singing live a try."

Selphie clapped her hands and hopped on one foot. "I'm so glad she did!" she squealed. "She was _amazing._ I hope you guys do more!"

Rinoa avidly nodded. "Yes, her voice is a great addition to Irvine's."

"I agree. I'm glad she's gaining more confidence with each show. _We_ all know how fucking amazing she is, so I'm glad she's starting to see it as well." Irvine reached into his pocket and pulled out a key card. "So, I'm getting hungry. Esteban gave me the room key to Djin Theory's suite, what say we head up and order some room service? Eli texted me and said some of the tour staff is already there hanging out."

"Food?" Rinoa beamed. "Uh…yes, please!"

"You got it." Irvine extended a hand for her. "My lady?"

Rinoa gave him a mock bashful coo and took his arm, cuddling up to him and scrunching her nose at Selphie in laughter. "Oh…Mr. Kinneas! You are sooooo dashing!"

"Isn't he?" Selphie sighed, batting her lashes up at him as they all started to walk back towards the hotel.

Irvine threw his head back in laughter and looked at Squall over his shoulder. "Well…lookie here, aren't I the luckiest guy in the world with two beautiful ladies on each arm?" he drawled, sending Squall a debonair wink. "Suck it, Leonhart."

Squall only blinked. "The fuck just happened?"

Irvine ignored him and continued walking. "Come ladies, let me take you to where fine dining awaits."

"I seriously just got tossed aside because someone else promised food," Squall muttered.

Rinoa tried her damndest not to sputter out laughing, her fingers flying to shield her wavering smile. As they all started walking they came across Absolute Lore's van and trailer, where some of the tour staff was still loading up the rest of the gear.

The largest one turned and gave them all a salutation. "Hey kiddos," he said.

"Hey, Ward," Irvine called. "We're heading up to Djin Theory's suite."

Ward nodded and gave a gesture to one of the roadies. "Sounds good, I actually already ordered some pizzas and Chinese takeout to go with some of the room service entrees." He glanced down to his watch. "Should be there shortly."

"My man…you always take such good care of us," Irvine gave him a swift salute. "No wonder you're the tour manager."

* * *

Up at Djin Theory's suite, some of the roadies had already broken into the liquor cabinet. Not long after did the ordered food arrive and Rinoa was overwhelmed with the multitude of food options.

"Holy shit!" she gasped, her palms cupping her cheeks as she stared at the spread in front of her. "Do you guys eat like this _every _night?"

Squall scooped up a small carton of shrimp chow fun. "No, Ward usually orders big things like this on show nights. Most of the time it's frozen tv dinners."

Rinoa practically drooled at the noodles that dangled from Squall's chopsticks. "Ohmygod. Are you gonna take _all_ of them? Dude, fatty, share the wealth."

"Get your own," he said, turning away and holding the takeout carton close to his chest.

Rinoa snatched up a pair of chopsticks and snaked around him, attempting to stab the chopsticks into the little carton of noodles. "Don't be so greedy," she lectured. "Sharing is caring."

Easily he lifted the takeout carton up and above her reach. While she made a noise in protest, his other arm sliding over her arms and twirling her so her back was pressed against his side and her arms were trapped to her front. "I don't share."

Rinoa wriggled in his grasp and giggled when he held her tighter. "Pretty please? Don't be a meanie."

Selphie chuckled as she approached the spread, scooping a slice of pizza onto a paper plate. "Squall, be nice and share the damn noodles with Rinoa. Don't make me call Ward on you!"

At the threat, Squall quickly released Rinoa and handed her the carton. "Fine."

Rinoa dug into the carton with her chopsticks and looked at Squall. "Scared of the big bad tour manager?"

Squall smirked and reached over the table to grab a beer. "Nah…but I've seen him and Zell go at it. Ward used to be in the military and mentioned that his expertise was hand to hand combat. Zell, who is also a martial arts master, challenged him one night out of boredom." He slowly took a long swallow and turned his eyes back to Rinoa. "For someone so large he can move rather quickly, he had Zell down on the ground in less than a minute."

Rinoa took a few more bites of the chow fun before handing it back over. "Wow…I've never seen Zell fight before."

"He's good," Squall said. "Better than me. So if _he_ got taken out that quickly I'd rather not take my chances."

After the words were spoken, the quiet and gentle giant came into the suite, Fujin strapped to his back like a little knapsack. "Fuck yeah!" she screamed, her arm high in the air. "We killed them! Another show passed that will talked about for ages!" Ward released her to the ground and quietly slinked away to grab himself a beer.

Zell came in behind them, along with the rest of Djin Theory and a few other members of Odin's Blade. "Seriously, good show tonight, fucking awesome. This is the best tour ever!" he cried, accepting the drink that Irvine handed him. "Here's to us!"

"Here's to us!" Gregor shouted, raising his own drink before focusing on the other drink he was making for another person. "Here's to you, and you, and you…"

"And you!" Quistis chirped, tapping a long nail upon his forehead.

* * *

Squall sat with his arm resting behind the back of the couch, his fingers softly pinching the plush material. With one leg bent so his booted foot rested along the opposite knee, his eyes glazed over the crowd that filled the suite that Djin Theory had managed to reserve. As he tilted his beer bottle towards his lips he hadn't even realized that he was searching for a particular face until his gaze landed on her.

She was standing there with Quistis, laughing and slowly sipping her drink that seemed to be more melted ice than anything else. She ran her fingers through her long, black hair and cascaded it over one shoulder to show off that insanely sexy tattoo of hers. Almost as if she felt his eyes on her, Rinoa turned to glance at him over her shoulder, and then promptly stuck her tongue out at him before turning away again.

_The little minx,_ he thought.

Then the couch shifted beneath him and he turned his head to see Fujin sitting next to him, giggling as she looked up at Gregor, who was standing beside her. "Squall," she said. "You have to try this drink Gregor just made."

Gregor nodded. "Used to make this drink for the wife all the time," he said with a smile. "Before she got pregnant, anyway."

Squall leaned forward to place his now empty bottle onto the glass table in front of him and took the drink from Fujin's hand. "How is she doing?" he asked Gregor, taking a long swallow.

"She's good. She's gotten over the morning sickness, thankfully, and has her twenty-four week appointment scheduled on Tuesday."

"Do you know what she's having yet?" Fujin asked, taking back her glass from Squall.

Gregor shook his head. "Not yet. Since I'll be home in a few weeks she either wants to wait until I'm back with her or we find out the day the baby's born." A proud smile slowly shifted over his features. "To be honest, I kinda wanna wait."

"That's exciting," Squall said. "We'll have to make an Absolute Lore onesie for you."

Fujin laughed and gave Squall's knee a smack. "Adorable! What'd you think of it? Pretty yummy right?"

Squall shrugged. He wasn't a huge fan of sweet drinks. "Not my favorite, but not bad."

Fujin scoffed and looked back over to Gregor. "Ignore him. If it doesn't taste as dark and bitter as him, he don't want it." She turned to Squall and scrunched her face at him. "Good show tonight," she said.

"It was," Squall agreed.

"Ooh! Your photographer! Good, I wanted to run a proposal by her." Using Squall's knee as leverage, she pushed herself back up to her feet and quickly skipped her way to Rinoa. "Hi!" she said, shrugging her shoulders as she tried to politely make her way into the conversation.

Quistis noticed her first and sent her a smile. "Oh, why hello there!"

Rinoa turned and gave her own salutation.

"So, Rinoa…I was talking about your work with Absolute Lore to our producer, Kiros."

Rinoa's eyebrows raised and she stammered. "Uh…what? Really?"

"Yes! Your work is _amazing_, seriously, you have such a great eye and you are _so_ talented." Fujin took a quick drink from her glass and continued. "So, I ran this idea by Kiros and wanted to run it by you to see if you were interested?"

"Ooh…well, please, go on." Rinoa pressed her lips together as she watched Fujin's smile grow wider.

"Well, our tour is wrapping up near the end of next month. Squall mentioned that you are working for a studio and I thought it would be so much fucking fun for you and your studio to photograph the last show of our tour!"

Rinoa nearly dropped her glass. "Oh—wow—_really?_"

Quistis squealed and wrapped her arms around Rinoa's shoulders. "That would be awesome!" she said into Rinoa's ear.

"It's not for sure yet!" Fujin cried. "I really, really, _really_ wanna make it happen but that's all up to our producer and the tour manager. _But_…I'd thought I'd run it by you first before I let Kiros go through all of our budgets and stuff."

"Yeah, yes, of course. I'm definitely interested and I'll talk to the other two guys at my studio when I get back into Deling, but keep me posted!" She dug into her purse for her business card. "Here. Take my card."

Fujin let out an excited howl and raised her arms up high, shaking her hips as they all fell into gales of laughter. "Yay!" she sang, tucking the card into her pocket.

Zell plopped down onto the couch beside Squall. "What a night," he said.

"You're telling me," Squall said, his eyes never leaving Rinoa.

Without even lifting his gaze, Zell gingerly picked at the calluses upon his fingertips. "What's wrong?" he asked lowly. "Getting nervous that Rinoa is getting a bit chummy with your old flame?"

Squall scoffed. "She's not an old flame, hardly even a flicker." Out of everyone in the entire room (aside from Rinoa), Zell was the only one who knew about his fling with Fujin. Squall was never one to share his "conquests," but he and Zell went way back, far beyond the rest of the members of the band. Zell was the one he could trust when it came to discretion.

This time Zell did lift his head, letting his gaze roam over Rinoa's features. "Does she know that? She can't stop staring at Fujin's mouth."

Squall turned an icy glare to Zell and the blonde responded by putting up his hands in surrender. "Hey, I'm just trying to help a brother out. I like Rinoa, really, I do. I think she's good for you. So…I'm just saying don't fuck it up with her."

"I've no intention of doing that."

Zell tilted his head and gave Squall a soft and pensive grin. "Then what are your intentions with her?"

Squall only lowered his gaze, letting it sweep over the empty bottle that rested upon the table before him. _My intentions? _he thought. What did he want from Rinoa? Even though his mind and heart was mostly occupied with the priority of the band, he knew—deep down he _knew_—that Rinoa had practically spun herself into his veins like the most welcome addiction.

He lifted his eyes and saw that Zell was still watching him, still giving that subtle grin. Then, with his own faint ghost of a smirk, Squall replied, "To make her smile."

* * *

**"Gimme Shelter" music and lyrics by Mick Jagger &amp; Keith Richards, cover performed by Stone Sour**

**"Rock Show" music and lyrics by Halestorm**


	25. Chapter 25

**A/N: TBIWM has reached over 7,100 views. I am in awe. Hello readers! I hope you're enjoying the story. Again, thank you all for the reviews, I really do appreciate them! =) **

**xoxoxox**

* * *

Rinoa arched a brow as Selphie wobbled over to her. "Are you ok?" she laughed, reaching for her.

Selphie nodded and offered a beaming grin. "Yes! Zell says it's time for shots!"

"Shots!" came a roar, and soon Zell was leaping over to the two girls with a bottle of Jameson in his arms. "Come on, drinking buddy," he said to Rinoa, nudging her with an elbow. "You said you'd take shots, don't back out now. Squall, bring me those shooters."

"Never did I say I was backing out!" Rinoa argued, taking the shot glass Squall was handing her. "Now shut up and start pouring."

"Yes Ma'am!" Zell said, saluting her with two fingers. "Irvine, get your bitch ass over here. Where's my girl?" He lifted his head and searched for the tall, leggy blonde. "Quistis!" he shouted. "Woman, get over and get drunk with me."

Quistis practically danced her way over. "Oh, shit, don't need to tell me twice!" She bounded over and gratefully accepted the shot glass from Squall. "You gonna pour that or what?" she quipped.

Zell exhaled an exasperated breath and clicked his teeth at her. "Just for that, I'm pouring yours last."

"Don't do that," Irvine grinned. "It's bad manners. The host always fills his cup last."

"But she's being mean!"

Rinoa quietly giggled and shook her head at the barking that ensued between the two men.

"Fuckin' _shit_, gimmie that." Squall snatched the bottle from Zell's grasp and quickly broke off the cap. "See what I have to deal with?" he muttered to Rinoa. "Nearly _every_ night." He poured her shot first before attending to the rest of the crew and then filling his glass last.

"You love it, don't lie," she murmured to him, smiling fully when he responded with a heart melting grin.

Zell raised his shot glass in the air with a howl. "Here's to an amazing night spent with friends. To you, Rinoa, because of your taking over our webpage we are getting more hits than ever!"

Rinoa gushed and pressed her fingers to her cheek. "Oh…_stop._"

"No, seriously, Cid and Edea have been tracking the hits our webpage has been getting. It's still skyrocketing!" Quistis said. "You are _just_ what we needed!"

"Well, here's to _you_ guys for being my favorite subjects to shoot. I honestly have not had this much fun on a project before and I am so glad to have been accepted into your little band family!" She let out an excited scream as Zell wrapped an arm around her shoulders and brought her in for a strong side hug.

"Welcome to the family!" Irvine shouted.

"And here's to _Quistis_ for releasing the singing siren that she has been been hiding all this time!" Selphie cried, causing the blonde to blush.

"To Squall, for writing _Stars_," Irvine said, sending a charming smirk. "_Stars _has been shooting its way up the list on Mecia's show. It released two nights ago and she texted me saying it's already in the top three!"

Rinoa stole a glance at Squall and bit down into her lower lip when she witnessed that a slight flush was creeping onto the apples of his cheeks. When she saw that his eyes were starting to move towards her, she flinched and aimed her attention back to her drink. "Yay!" she hollered, raising the shot glass to her lips.

"Oh shit—guess it's time to shoot!" Zell followed Rinoa's lead and they all threw back their heads to swallow the shots. He noisily smacked his tongue against the roof of his mouth. "Another!"

* * *

The party continued on, everyone was just still so pumped from the show that hardly anyone noticed that it was nearing two in the morning. Rinoa and Selphie were dancing in the middle of the room, laughing and giggling as if it were only them in the suite. Selphie twirled Rinoa in her arms and squealed with delight. "I'm so glad you were able to come to the party this time!" she said.

"Me too! This is so much fun!"

The party was not entirely what Rinoa had expected. Most of the time, when one would think about an after party consisting of rock stars, one would usually imagine booze, drugs, and partially naked women. Instead—even though booze was most definitely involved, heavily—most of the band members and even the tour staff were lounging around in front of the large television set playing Mario Kart.

"Fuck you and fuck your blue shell!" Fujin shrieked at Royce.

Rinoa clamped a hand over her mouth to stifle her laughter. She looked over to see Ward and a few members of Doomtrain in a very intense card game. Quistis and Zell were dancing together, this time an elaborate ballroom waltz that would have been most impressive if Quistis wasn't stumbling because of her drunken state. But every time it looked like she was going to fall flat on her face or back, Zell easily looped an arm around her waist and kept her upright.

Squall and Irvine appeared to be in a deep conversation on the couch, but every so often one of them would glance their way. Selphie stepped away from Rinoa and clapped her hands. "Whoo!" she exclaimed. "I need some water." She turned away and walked into the kitchen area of the suite and filled an empty glass from the tap. "Man, what a night!" she gasped after chugging down the water.

"Yes," Rinoa panted.

Selphie turned and placed her empty glass into the sink. She gasped and a small clattering could be heard when she bent forward. "Oh shit," she said. "One of my earrings fell!" She leaned in closer and quickly slapped her fingers over the little gold hoop before it could fall down the drain. After successfully pulling the earring from the sink, she raised her head, smacking it right into the overhead cupboard.

Rinoa's eyes widened and she quickly grasped Selphie around the shoulders to keep the stumbling brunette from falling backwards. "Selphie! Are you ok?"

Selphie made a pained noise and her eyes squinted, her lips turning into a scowl as the pain shot from the top of her head down towards the rest of her body. "Ow…fuuuuuck." She missed a step and her feet slipped underneath her.

Rinoa let out a yelp and went down with her to the ground. She managed to land on her knees, which were on either side of Selphie's torso, and kept her hands around the back of Selphie's head to act as a cushion. "Irvine!" Rinoa shouted.

Suddenly, Irvine was there and scooping Selphie into his arms. "Babe? Babe, what happened? You ok?"

Squall helped Rinoa to her feet and they all rushed Selphie to sit upon the center island counter. "She dropped her earring into the sink and when she lifted away she hit her head on the cupboard," Rinoa explained.

Irvine caressed Selphie's cheek and told her to open her eyes. "I think you'll be ok," he whispered, checking her pupils to make sure she wouldn't have a concussion. "How many fingers am I holding?" he asked, holding up three fingers, then changing it to two, then to four.

Selphie scowled and held up her middle finger. "How many am I?"

Irvine chuckled and gave her a swift kiss. "I think you'll live. Rinoa, keep her upright, I'll get her an ice pack."

Rinoa placed herself between Selphie's legs and gently brushed away the brown strands of hair that had fallen in front of her watering eyes. "You alright?" she asked softly.

Selphie gave a tiny nod. "Yeah, I don't think I hit it that hard…but owie."

"Here," Irvine said, handing Rinoa a cold ice pack.

"Thanks." She held it atop Selphie's head and smiled at her. "Did you manage to save your earring?"

"Um…I think I dropped it to the floor…"

"It's here," Squall said, scooping it up from the tile. He leaned in and attached it back into her lobe.

Selphie groaned and looked over to Irvine, who was massaging her palm. "I think it's time to get going," she said. "You have aspirin in your room, right?"

"I do. But I think we should wait until all the alcohol is out of your body before you take any." He scooted Rinoa out of the way and helped Selphie off the counter. "There's a vending machine just around the corner from our room, we'll get you some bottles of water." He took the ice pack from Rinoa and looped a protective arm around Selphie's waist. "Thanks," he said to Rinoa. With his pace slow and cautious, he exited the suite with Selphie in tow.

"Selphie ok?" Fujin asked, popping in the kitchen to grab a soda from the fridge.

"Yeah, she just bumped her head so Irvine's taking her back to our room," Squall told her.

Fujin nodded and went back to the group still huddled in front of the television.

Squall watched her leave and his eyes glanced over to where Zell and Quistis were taking a quick break from dancing, which consisted of them trying to toss grapes into each others' mouths. With his fingers lightly brushing over the curve of Rinoa's waist, he leaned in towards her ear, his breath still fragrant with whiskey. "Did you want to stay or…?"

Rinoa lifted her chin and gave him a slow and easy smile. "Nah, wanna get out of here?"

"Yeah. I'm getting tired."

"Alright." Rinoa reached for her purse and together they left, unnoticed by the inhabitants of Djin Theory's suite.

* * *

They reached Rinoa's room, which was a few floors below Squall's, and she slid her key card so they could enter. She instantly winced when he flipped on the light, illuminating the room and the mess she and the girls had left. Strewn along the beds were several outfits that she and Selphie had tried on before settling on the dresses they wore. Rinoa's makeup bag was open, the contents spilled along the dark green comforter in addition to several pairs of panties and a bra or two.

Every time she had entered Squall's apartment, it was completely spotless and pristine. His bed was always made, the sheets always expertly tucked in. She herself could only admit to actually making her bed when she washed her sheets. As a child, she always kept her room clean because her father would insist, but after living on her own for almost seven years…she found that as long as nothing was _growing_ on her items, it was perfectly ok for things to be tossed here and there. Though, she had to admit, she was getting much better at it when it came to her own apartment. When it came to hotel rooms…that was another story.

"Um, sorry about the mess," she muttered, her fingers shyly brushing over her bottom lip.

"Couldn't decide what to wear?" he asked.

She wasn't going to tell him she ransacked her closet to find an outfit he hadn't yet seen her wear, wasn't going to tell him that while he waited outside her room so she could pack that she rummaged through her panty drawer to find a pair she thought he would like. "Maybe," she finally said.

Squall grinned and helped her clear off the beds. "Well, I must say that I definitely like what you ended up picking."

Rinoa blushed and plopped the clothes onto the loveseat that rested in the corner. "Thank you," she said. She rubbed her hands together and glanced towards the bathroom door. "I'm gonna go wash my hands."

Squall came up behind her as she stood at the sink, his fingers gathering up her hair into a rope and twisting it over her front. Now that her neck was exposed, he leaned in, his lips softly grazing over the sensitive nape.

She felt her entire body tighten, a strangled groan escaped from her and she watched him in the mirror as he carefully pressed her forward, his hips lining up behind her.

"You look beautiful," he murmured across her skin. She couldn't answer, could only moan quietly when he nipped his teeth at her earlobe. "I've been wanting you all day."

Rinoa surprised herself when she all but moaned, "Then take me."

He lifted his eyes so they met hers in the mirror. "Right here?" he whispered.

She pressed her lips together, rolled them between her teeth and nodded. "Yes."

His hands gripped her wrists, keeping them firmly planted atop the counter as he ground his hips into her. The sound of her moans, the sight of her teeth biting down into her lower lip, the erratic rise and fall of her breasts, they all ignited the fire within him and he placed heated kisses along the slope of her neck.

He pulled back a hand and slowly lifted up the hem of her dress, leaving streaks of goosebumps along the side of her thigh. His fingers pressed into her skin, traced over the lace border of her panties before slipping beneath the thin fabric to caress her. He made a groan that rocked her to the core. "You are always so wet," he panted, kissing the curved line of her jaw.

"Uh huh," she moaned, rolling her hips against him and squirming with delight as his fingers worked her.

He removed his fingers from her for a moment, long enough to push down her panties so they slithered down around her ankles.

She couldn't see, for her body was blocking his movements in the mirror, but the sound of the zipper lowering and the telltale noise of fabric falling made her shiver with need. She watched him in the mirror, watched as his lips trailed over the curve of her shoulder. Behind her he moved, his hands working to fix the condom, but his lips and his tongue never strayed from her skin.

As he slammed into her she automatically surged forward over the counter, wincing from the sharp pain she received from the counter hitting her pelvic bones. His arm came over her front, pulling her back up so she stood flush against his chest. His thumb and forefinger cupped her jaw, forcing her to look into the mirror while his other hand disappeared beneath her dress again. She whimpered and shut her eyes, letting herself drown in the pleasure he was giving her with his pounding thrusts and skillful fingers.

"No," he growled. "Keep your eyes open."

She did as he commanded, flushing when she saw that he was staring at her reflection. His eyes flared, the steely blue nearly overwhelmed with desire. Her mouth dropped open in a fractured moan, her body tingling as waves of heat rippled over her with each of his movements.

"See what I see," he whispered, his teeth nipping at her earlobe, tongue darting out to lick the shell.

"Ohmygod," she gasped. She watched herself come, watched her jaw drop open in a silent scream, watched her cheeks turn red as her heart raced. Then she saw him watching her and she nearly lost her footing.

After driving her to her peak, his hand left her and clutched into her ribs to keep her steady. He felt himself reaching his end, and he turned her jaw in his grasp so his lips could claim hers. He groaned into her mouth as he came, the fingers of his right hand digging into the crocheted material of her dress. "Fuck," he murmured, his heart thundering against the inked wings upon her back. Slowly he traced her mouth with the tip of his tongue, thrusting one last time and earning a sharp squeal from her.

Together they stood against the bathroom counter, tangled in each others' arms and panting as their bodies slowly calmed down. When Rinoa opened her eyes she found that Squall was gazing down at her, his fingers gently caressing her jaw.

"Oh god…" she whispered.

He responded with a half smile and gave her a quick peck to the forehead before pulling his length from her to dispose of the condom.

Rinoa turned around and leaned back against the counter, her palms gripping the edge as she watched him pull his boxers and pants back up into place. "Are…are you going to stay here tonight?" she softly asked. "I mean, since Selphie's in your room."

Squall shrugged. "I've already seen her in her panties, I've no intention of seeing her in anything less so…yeah, I could." When he glanced up to see Rinoa arching a questioning brow, he chuckled. "Oh, you haven't heard the interview we had with Mecia yet, have you?"

"No?"

Squall ran his fingers through his hair and crouched down to unlace his boots. "Basically I picked up Irvine's phone one night and she had just sent him a picture."

Rinoa laughed and could only imagine the face he had made when he saw what kind of picture Selphie had sent. "Ah…got it." She tilted her head and smiled when Squall then started to help her remove her shoes. Her body tingled and she bit her lower lip when he began to drag her panties back up the length of her legs. "I'm gonna change into my pajamas."

He nodded and tucked a strand of black hair behind her ear. "Ok." He leaned in and kissed her softly before making his way for the bed.

* * *

In bed, Squall lay on his back while Rinoa was half laying across his chest, her fingers softly grazing over the metal hoop that peeked through the black cotton tee. "You looked so bored when Djin Theory was playing," she said.

Squall shrugged, his fingers slowly coiling into Rinoa's hair. "We've played with them before, their set line up hasn't changed much. It's all background noise to me now."

Rinoa made a quick, amused noise in the throat and she raised her head to look at him fully. "Really? So, you don't even notice what they're saying or doing on stage?"

"No, I tend to zone out. Like I said, we've known them for years and they haven't really done anything new and exciting on stage—at least in my opinion anyway. I'm sure a lot of bands feel the same way about the bands they tour with."

"So…you didn't even notice that Fujin was pointing right at you and licking her lips and doing that 'come hither' finger curl?"

Squall's brows frowned and Rinoa could see the wheels turn in that head of his. "Uh…what?"

Rinoa smothered a laugh. Was he truly that oblivious? "Really? You didn't see?" When he shook his head at her, she poked him in the chest. "No _wonder_ girls must have thought you were an asshole in highschool!"

"What?"

"They were probably throwing themselves at you and you didn't even notice! You were probably like, 'eh, whatever.'" Rinoa rolled her eyes and laughed to herself, she could only imagine all the baby hearts he had broken simply because he was too oblivious to notice what was going on in front of him.

Squall made a face that looked as if he were about to protest, but then his eyes shifted to the side as he thought. His mouth closed and he gave a slight tilt of his head and a shrug of his shoulders. "You're probably right."

Rinoa chuckled. "Yeah, no, Fujin was like practically eye-fucking you from the stage. You really didn't notice? She was looking _right_ at you."

Squall only shrugged his shoulders. "Never noticed."

"So, does she hit on you a lot and you just don't notice?"

Squall lifted a brow as he watched Rinoa avert her gaze. "What, are you jealous?"

Rinoa ground her teeth. "You know…that's a really ugly word," she muttered, curling her lips into snarl as if she smelled something foul. She looked up at him and narrowed her eyes when she noticed his eyes were sparking tauntingly. "Are you…_laughing_ at me?"

The spark disappeared and Squall's face was suddenly devoid of any emotion as he shook his head. "No, no never," he said. Then, slowly his lips curved into a full grin. "I just think it's cute."

"Cute?" Rinoa scoffed and rolled her eyes. "I am not trying to be _cute._ I'm just…greedy when it comes to guys I like." After the words tumbled out her eyes widened and she clamped her lips together. "I mean…_shit._"

It was then that Squall laughed—not at her, of course. He reached for her hands and softly ran his thumb over the quick little pulse in her wrist. "You may not be trying to be cute," he murmured, pulling her face closer to his. "But, dammit woman you sure are." He wrapped his hand around the back of her neck and leaned in.

Rinoa closed her eyes, breathing deep as she felt Squall's lips brush over her forehead. "I won't lie," she murmured. "I'm more so jealous that she'll get to spend nearly every day with you."

Squall sighed, his lips curving into a grin and he massaged his fingers into the back of her neck. "Yeah…I like spending most of my days with you."

Rinoa moved so her head lay across his chest, his slow and steady heartbeat drumming against her temple. "I miss hanging out with all of you guys…you, mostly," she added quietly.

"Me too." His arms came around her shoulders, one hand resting along the curve of her lower back. "I know it's not much, but I'll be with you the entire time before we leave tomorrow night."

"What time are you leaving?" she asked through a tiny yawn.

"Seven." He held her close, listened to her steady breathing and felt her heart softly beat against his. He thought to what Rinoa had asked, if Fujin had been hitting on him and he hadn't even noticed. Had she? He tried to think back to their instances together on tour and tried to see if there was anything over flirtatious. After a few minutes of silence he couldn't think of any. Even when they had their little 'fling,' the moment itself happened randomly.

It was after a gig they had played together over the holidays. Absolute Lore and Djin Theory were all at Zell's house, celebrating a successful show, and then some of the members loudly vocalized that they wanted milkshakes and fries but most were too drunk to drive. Since Squall and Fujin were the sober ones at the time, the duty of going on a food run fell upon their shoulders.

As Squall drove he and Fujin started talking about random shit, one of the topics included her reasoning behind her eyepatch. She confided in him that she started wearing it when she was in high school because she was beaten by one of her mom's boyfriends and it resulted in her losing her vision in her left eye. Since Squall had grown up in an abusive household before Ellone rescued him, he and Fujin had a moment. And while the paper bags they had picked up from the 24 hour drive-thru sat in the back of his Jeep, Squall pulled behind a home improvement store and Fujin was suddenly leaning over the center console with Squall's tongue in her mouth and her hands inside his pants.

Afterwards they laughed about it and they never spoke about it again. A few times she would send him a wink but it never went further than that. It was a one time thing and the topic of it never came up. Even being on tour together she never said or did anything that he found out of the ordinary, so when Rinoa mentioned Fujin's little flirty message he honestly found himself surprised.

_Maybe I should pay more attention,_ he thought. He was able to concentrate and notice the littlest details while on the battlefield and from a quick, two minute session with a client he was able to deduce where the client's weakness was and where he or she needed to improve and was able to construct a detailed therapy plan, but when it came to women… _Fuck, I'm just a dumbass. _

"I see only you," he whispered to Rinoa. When she didn't respond he tilted his head to look down at her. She was already asleep.

* * *

Squall awoke to a bright light flashing across his eyelids. He frowned, opening his eyes slowly. He couldn't make out much since the room was still dark, but he saw a figure moving around the room using the light of a cell phone screen to guide her way. After a quick second he deduced that it was Quistis, aiming her phone towards the ground so she could see where she was going.

"What time is it?" he asked quietly so he wouldn't wake Rinoa. He had moved her so she was on her side, cradled close into his chest.

Quistis turned slightly but kept the screen aimed at the ground. "Almost five," she whispered. "Rinoa out?"

"Yeah."

"Selphie in your room?"

"She hit her head in the kitchen so Irvine took her to bed."

Quistis nodded and rummaged through her duffle bag. "I passed out on the floor and woke up about ten minutes ago. Zell's still there, probably drooling on the carpet. Sorry to wake you, go back to sleep." She found her pajamas and disappeared into the bathroom to change.

* * *

It was just after nine when Squall felt Rinoa stir. He lazily groaned and pulled her in tighter. She responded by curling her fingers into his shirt. Squall opened his eyes and the first thing he saw was Quistis in the other bed, her back turned towards them and one arm dangling over the edge of the mattress. Against his chest he felt Rinoa fidget and he pulled away so she had room to move.

"Morning," he said.

Rinoa slowly raised herself to her elbows and rubbed her eyes with the heel of her palm. When her eyes started to focus she gave him a slow and easy smile. "Morning." She groaned softly and sat up fully, stretching her neck side to side before turning and seeing Quistis in the bed. "When did she get in?"

Squall leaned over to the nightstand and picked up his phone. "Few hours ago." He sat up as well and rubbed the back of his neck. He grinned as he watched her stretch and run her hands over her hair, which was now a mass of tangles one received from sleeping. "Coffee?" he asked her.

"Mmm…yes please," she moaned, her voice still thick and rumbling from sleep.

Quistis groaned and slowly pushed herself up onto her elbows. "Someone say coffee?"

Squall nodded and slipped out of the covers. "Yes, I'll grab you some."

"Cool." Quistis yawned and daintily patted her mouth. "Meet us outside?" she requested quietly. "I want a cigarette."

* * *

Squall found them sitting on an iron bench just outside of the hotel. He handed Quistis her coffee and sat down to Rinoa's left before handing her her own cardboard cup. "Lighter," he said, holding his hand out.

Quistis reached over Rinoa and slapped it into his palm before greedily chugging at her cup. "Oh lordy…that's good. Thanks."

"Anytime." He lit his own cigarette and leaned back against the bench.

The three of them were quiet for a while, relaxing in the warm June sun that blazed overhead. Rinoa sat between them and basked in the soothing silence, her fingertips lightly drumming along the smooth surface of the paper coffee cup Squall had handed her. A moment ago her mind was racing with so many thoughts, so many questions she had for Squall that were left unanswered…but now her mind was blank, almost at ease. Even though she still wondered about the women that had been in his life, she couldn't help but feel comfortable exactly where she was. Their…_relationship_ was still so new, still unsure, and still on uncharted territory due to his tour schedule.

Slowly she wet her lips with the tip of her tongue before bringing her coffee cup upwards. After last night's show he came to her. After the show in Deling he came to her. And after the tour was over he said he would come to her. He may not be _hers_ in the 'official' sense, but in her mind he was making a quiet and unspoken statement that he desired to be. For the time being, that was enough.

Inwardly she smiled to herself. Even if it was not said verbally, the pull between them was vividly felt on both parties.

Rinoa turned to Quistis. "What do you have planned for the rest of the day?"

Quistis darted a glance to Squall before bringing her cigarette to her lips. "Probably laze around or go shopping with Zell. Squall, you should go see your mom."

He turned his head towards her, his eyes void of any response.

"You haven't been back in Winhill in at least two years, go say hi and bring her flowers." Quistis stubbed out her cigarette and stood to her feet, stretching her arms so high overhead that her shirt lifted and exposed the milky flesh of her stomach. "Rinoa, go with him." She trained her eyes back to Squall and gave a wicked smirk. "The last time I told him to bring a lady flowers he blatantly ignored me. So, I leave it up to you to make sure he actually does as he's told." She tossed away her empty cup. "I'm gonna shower, change, and get all my things into the van. I'll text Selphie to do the same since checkout is at twelve. See you guys in a bit!"

Rinoa circled her head back to Squall after Quistis disappeared. "You were supposed to bring flowers to someone?" she laughed.

Squall exhaled the tiniest chuckle and took a long drag from his cigarette. "She told me to bring you flowers when you were visiting your dad in the hospital."

Her mouth dropped open in a mock gasp as if she were offended. "And you _didn't?_ Meanie."

"The flowers at LAMH are pitiful. You deserve better."

Rinoa blushed at his words. "Smooth," she said. "Real smooth." Her phone suddenly chirped for her attention and she slid her finger across the screen to read the text from Selphie.

_S.T: Hey! Head's feeling much better. I just left our room with my bags and I'm gonna shower in Irvine's room. He said Zell is still passed out in Djin Theory's suite and that Squall is MIA but I have this little itch in the back of my skull that's telling me he is with you ;)_

_R.H: We're outside. I'm gonna head to the room and probably shower/change in a bit. _

Squall stood to his feet and raked his fingers through his hair. "I'm gonna shower and pack my bags real quick. I'll meet you back at your room in like an hour?"

Rinoa nodded and stood up as well. "Yeah," she agreed. "Sounds good. See you in a bit."

* * *

When Squall came to her room Quistis had already vacated, but not before giving Rinoa a quick once over. "He's smitten," she had said, her tone overflowing with assurance. "Completely smitten."

Rinoa rolled her eyes but could not wipe away the giddy smile that was plastered on her lips. "Sure…sure," she had said back.

Quistis gripped Rinoa's biceps and gave her slight shake. "_Girl._" She gave Rinoa a look and stared deeply into her brown eyes. "Let me just say this…he likes to write—because, as I'm sure you've already noticed, he's not all that affluent in the vocal art—so even though it may not be _him_ saying it…_listen_."

Rinoa opened the door and welcomed Squall in. "Almost done packing my bag and then we can move all my shit into my car. Then we can go do whatever you want."

"Well, here's one more item to pack," said Squall, handing her a small red gift bag.

"Hm?" She took the bag into her hands and stared at it. He bought her a gift? She felt her heart skip a beat as realization struck her. Squall bought her a gift. Squall. Gift. For her. "Um…?" she managed to utter out.

"You're supposed to open it," he said, his face completely still.

Rinoa nervously laughed and waved her hand at him. "Oh! I know that…I was just taken aback." She opened up the bag and fished through the white tissue paper before pulling out a ceramic mug. She blinked. The mug's handle was an intricately carved mermaid tail, looped around to make space for fingers. On the surface was a Sailor Jerry-like pinup mermaid with fiery red hair and a compass in her hands. "Oh…wow. It's so pretty!"

"You told me that you collect books and coffee mugs," he told her, his eyes traveling over her fingers as she cradled the mug. "I saw that at an amusement park back in Dollet and thought she looked like you."

Rinoa looked at the mermaid and frowned. "I don't have red hair."

With a quiet sigh, Squall took the mug and flipped it around in her hands. On the other side was another mermaid, this one with black hair that flared out behind her and a hand on her hip. Her brown eyes stared straight out towards the viewer and her lips were pursed in a smug grin. "Her," he said.

Rinoa chuckled and rose onto her toes to wrap her arms around Squall's neck. "Thank you," she said. "I love it."

"Good."

Rinoa moved to pull away but Squall slid his fingers into her hair, grasping the roots at the nape of her neck. Keeping her in place, his lips descended upon hers. The tiny moan that escaped her brought a smile to his lips and he took the opportunity to prod her mouth gently with his tongue. So she would not drop her new mug, Squall detached her arms from around his neck and carefully set the mug back into its gift bag. His arms came around her again, his fingers caressing the curve of her cheek as he pulled her in closer.

Before she could stop herself, Rinoa's eyes darted to the alarm clock nestled on the dresser's counter. It was barely ten-thirty…checkout was at twelve, the girls had already turned in their room keys… She moved her gaze back to Squall and produced a grin heated enough to darken the steely blue eyes that looked back at her.

Squall soon had her on her back, his lips on hers and her face tenderly held between his palms as he slid inside her. Rinoa couldn't hold back the sharp gasp. There was hardly anything like the first thrust, no matter how many times she had experienced it already with Squall. It sent a vibration across her body that rocked her all the way to her skull before rippling back downwards to her toes. His teeth caught her bottom lip as she panted. His hands trailed over her forearms until his fingers laced with hers, pinning them above her head.

Rinoa locked her ankles around his hips, her heels pressing into the flesh of his ass with each rhythmic plunge. She writhed against him, her nails digging into her palm as she made a fist. "Oh god," she moaned, feeling her body hum with that tingling sensation she had been aching for. The way he molded against her, the way he fit inside her, the way his movements were the skilled combination of raw animalistic desire and gentle passion…it made her mind numb.

Even when he had her bent over the bathroom counter or pinned against the door in someone's garage, it didn't feel like 'just fucking' with him. With him it felt…different. It was the way he held her, how his fingers softly brushed over each curve of her body even though his thrusts were so rough and lust-filled.

As if he knew she was already reaching her peak, he kissed her and rotated his hips to the point that she wriggled her hands from his grasp and clawed at his back while she screamed. Her body milked him, dragged him along with her into the hazy and addicting blanket of euphoria.

Squall traced his fingers over the soft lines of her mouth, his stormy eyes locking into her gaze. Nothing was said between them as they stared at each other, their hearts beating against their ribcages as he still lay atop of her, still inside her.

Though no words were spoken and the only sounds that could be heard were their quiet breaths, the silence between them was comfortable. His gaze said so much to her yet nothing at all, she found she could stare into them all day if given the chance.

When he finally did pull his length from her, slowly, he smirked when she bit back a moan and instinctively raised her hips. He stood to his feet and pulled Rinoa to sit up. "Just five more weeks," she said as she shakily tried to stand.

"Hm?"

"Until you come back home," she said. She wrapped her arms around his neck and pushed her breasts against his inked chest. "Are you trying to overdose me with orgasms to keep me sated until then?"

Squall chuckled and splayed his fingers over her ass, his fingertips pressing into the flesh and pulling her tight against him. "What's wrong, angel? Finding yourself addicted?" He cocked his head, his lips in that smug grin she had only had the pleasure of glimpsing a few times, the tip of his tongue running between his teeth as his eyes dropped down to her mouth.

_To you? Possibly._ She didn't say anything back, only gave his non-pierced nipple a quick twist before worming out of his grasp. _Possibly. "Possibly?" Girl. Don't fucking lie to yourself._ She ignored her inner arguments and pulled back on the clothes that Squall had previously stripped from her. When she was hooking on her bra she took another look at him.

He had his back towards her, and now she could see the ink that decorated his skin…along with the red welts from her scratching nails. Along his left shoulder blade was a woman crouched against a lion, her eyes closed and peaceful while her hands were gently cupping the lion's strong jaw. Behind her were small ghostly wings that looks to be wisps of inky gauze. Above her head her halo was twisted into the infinity symbol.

Rinoa outstretched her hand and caressed her fingers over the tattoo. "This is beautiful," she murmured. Beneath the woman and the lion was a small collection of dots and lines that she couldn't quite make out. "What is this?" she asked. "Beneath the woman and the lion?"

"Stars," he said, tugging his shirt over his head, the ink suddenly concealed by black cotton. He turned around and caught her in his arms again. "So many questions from you lately," he said.

Rinoa narrowed her eyes. "I want to know about you," she told him. "Is that wrong?"

"Not at all."

"Do your tattoos have stories behind them or do they exist on your body simply because you wanted them to?" When he arched a brow at her, she shrugged. "That's why I have my wings. I don't have a cool back story behind them. I've always loved angels and wings are beautiful. I told Raymond I wanted wings and he mapped this out for me. That's basically it. Your tattoos look like they actually have a story."

Squall smiled softly. "Some do, not all," he admitted. "Let's get you checked out of your hotel first before we go into it."

Rinoa yanked on her tank top and scooped the strap of her bag over her shoulder. "Are they actually cool stories or are they kinda lame like your nipple piercing story?"

Squall only gave her a heated glare and gave her ass a hearty slap before ushering her out of the door.


	26. Chapter 26

**A/N: Hey loves. Sorry for the delay. Had something very personal going on in my life that started basically the day after my last update and then work/school full time along with the holidays...got a tad overwhelmed. **

**Enjoy! xoxoxox**

* * *

Squall eyed Rinoa weaving in and out through the aisles of the flower shop. Her fingertips softly caressed over rose petals and gently pinched an ivy leaf that dangled from a display. Her eyes scanned over the choices of greenery and she squealed in delight at the options. Squall had felt overwhelmed almost immediately after stepping through the shop's doors. There were way too many different kinds. Whenever he thought of a flower he first thought of a rose or perhaps a daisy…never had he realized there were so many different families of flowers.

"What are you thinking?" Rinoa suddenly asked, breaking his train of thought.

"Um."

Rinoa softly laughed and tugged at the cuff of his sleeve to drag him along behind her. "Have you ever bought flowers before?" When he shook his head she smiled and dropped his hand so she could grasp a pot of zinnias. "Well, we could just grab whatever draws your attention first?"

"What kind of flowers do you bring to your mom?" he asked her.

Rinoa placed the pot back onto its display and tucked a strand of black behind her ear. "Well…my mom always wore this nail polish color that was a mix of black and purple." Rinoa's smile grew wider as she talked about her mother's fingers gracefully dancing over the pale white keys of the piano. "So my dad likes to grab her black calla lilies. They're like this deep, rich, and really intense purple…I think he even said that she had black calla lilies as her wedding bouquet."

Squall felt a small surge of warmth swim through his veins as he watched Rinoa reminisce about her mother.

"How about blue?"

"Blue?" Squall asked.

"For the flowers," Rinoa answered, moving away to approach another display of flowers. "How about we pick a blue flower since your mother's eyes were blue." She picked up a pot that held a stalk of blue orchids. "And your eyes are blue…this one's really pretty."

Squall took the orchid from Rinoa and stared at the petals. The tips were a pale blue and deepened in color as it moved further into the center of the orchid. The little unblossomed buds along the stalk dangled like little blueberries. They were an interesting sight. He nodded and held the flower pot closer to him as he glanced over to Rinoa. "Alright, let's get these."

Rinoa let out a short laugh. "Squall, you can't just pick the first one you looked at!"

"I'm not. You suggested a blue flower and I like this one."

* * *

Squall held out his hand. "I'll drive if you could hold the flower."

"Sure." She hopped into the passenger seat and protectively held the flower pot in her lap.

"You didn't have to buy it," he said to her when he turned the ignition.

Rinoa gave him a smile, thinking to how he started to argue with her in front of the cashier when she kept pushing his hand away and giving the cashier her own card. She thought to the cashier's patient smile and tried not to laugh when she knew the cashier was probably thinking, _'Ugh, you guys aren't cute. Just fucking pay already.' _"I know I didn't have to but I wanted to. So I did. End of story."

As the drive went underway, Rinoa shifted in her seat. "Tell me about the tattoo on your back. It's stunning."

Squall glanced at her and gave her that slight grin before focusing back on the road before him. "Thank you. I don't know why you want to know so badly…I'm sure you've noticed that I'm not the greatest storyteller."

"Yeah, you suck at it, but I still want to know!"

"It's a combination of things, I got it a few years ago. When I was a kid Ellone taught me about the zodiac and how I'm two signs because my birthday is on the cusp."

"You believe in the zodiac?" Rinoa asked.

Squall shrugged his shoulders. "I don't think the stars have any control over your personality or characteristics but…" He chuckled lightly and pulled his cigarettes from his jacket. "Ellone always told me that the stars would watch over me and that they'd be my guardians. Lions were my favorite animal and since my birthday is August 23rd, my zodiac sign is Leo and Virgo."

Rinoa smiled. "The lion and the angel."

"Yeah," he smirked, lighting the cigarette and ashing out the window. "The stars in my skin are the constellations of Leo and Virgo."

"And the woman with the lion above them?"

"The tarot card of Strength." He glanced at Rinoa again. "I don't believe in tarot either, but I like to read about otherworldly beliefs."

"You really like stars, don't you?" she asked, gently stroking her nails over his thigh.

"They're constant," he said back. "Even when one dies another comes in and takes its place. It's a cycle that will continue on even when we humans have run our planet into nothingness. The stars will remain."

Rinoa lowered her lashes and gave his thigh a soft squeeze. "Stars are beautiful," she murmured. Ever since that night in his Jeep, she hadn't looked at stars the same way. Every time she looked out her window and was able to see them glittering against the night sky like diamonds…she thought about how he held her, how his lips caressed her body while he thrust himself into her. "When your tour's over we should go stargazing again."

He grinned and laced his fingers through hers for a moment. "The best time is summer," he said. "When the skies are clear. The best place is the desert—that's where Ellone would take me—or the cliff you and I were at last time." He turned towards her and gave her a smoldering smirk.

Rinoa smiled widely, her eyes crinkling at the corners and Squall felt his heart skip a beat. "Is the cliffside your favorite place to stargaze?"

"It is now," he said lowly.

His grin widened when he saw the color rise to the apples of her cheeks. She giggled and prodded a finger to his chest. "You charmer," she purred. "I bet you say that to all the girls you'd brought there."

Squall didn't miss the gentle fishing for information. "No," he told her. "The cliff was a place I always went to alone. You were the first person I ever brought there."

"Really?"

"Yes," he said firmly.

It grew quiet and Rinoa cradled the flower pot to her middle. "At least your zodiac signs are lovely," she sighed. "Mine's a fish."

Squall let out a laugh and looked over at her. "Pisces?" he asked.

She nodded and sucked in her cheeks so she made a fish face at him. "I don't think it fits me at _all,_" she said, her voice muffled.

* * *

Rinoa knelt down and placed the white flower pot before the simple block tombstone. Her eyes scanned over where it read

_Raine Lobo_

_Loving wife and mother_

"Lobo?" she asked quietly, her head turning towards the marker beside Raine's.

_Viktor Lobo_

_Loving husband and father_

"Leonhart was her maiden name," Squall said, lighting a cigarette.

Rinoa watched as the smoke floated through Squall's parted lips and was mesmerized by the silent and pensive expression that washed over his features as he ran his fingers over Raine's name. "Squall?"

His eyes flicked over to meet hers. "Yes?"

"May I…" Rinoa wet her lips and took a quick breath. "Would it be alright if I took some pictures of you? While you visit your mother?" It seemed such a private moment, she didn't want to intrude, but it was such a beautiful sight to see him longingly gaze at what was left of his mother's memory.

His eyes darkened, only slightly, as if he were about to oppose, but then he looked at Raine's grave once more before slowly nodding. "You're not going to put it on the web page, are you?"

"No. No, I'd never, but I'd like to use these shots for my own personal portfolio, if that's alright." He nodded and she removed her camera from its home and stood to her feet, shooting away. Her heart warmed yet ached at the sight of him through the lens. This man before her had been so hardened by his trials through Life yet that rough exterior had melted and now she could see the little boy beneath, the little boy who missed his mother who had been taken from him too early. Rinoa circled around the grave and continued shooting. "Do you have any memories of your mother? You were so young when she passed…you said you remember her hands but do you have a memory?" When Squall looked at her over his shoulder, she clamped her teeth into her bottom lip. _Shit._

Then his gaze dropped and it appeared he tried to think of one. "I can't even remember the sound of her laugh," he said. "But I do remember she was always smiling." He craned his neck to look back at the grave and lit another cigarette. "I remember sitting on the couch with her, wrapped in a large blanket, and she was reading something to me…some story book maybe."

He became quiet again, and Rinoa sucked in a breath and snapped away at her camera.

* * *

"Let me know when you stop for the night," Selphie said, leaning in through the open passenger window to give Irvine another kiss.

"Of course, babe," he said to her.

Rinoa gently pushed Squall's head back so it rested against the driver's side head rest, making enough space for her to lean forward with her camera and take a quick snapshot of the couple saying their goodbyes. With a quiet grin she lowered her camera and pulled away from the window. Her gaze turned back to Squall, who was watching her with those intense eyes of his.

Their trek back into town was quiet, but not entirely the comfortable quietness they had experienced together prior. She didn't ask again about his mother, and she wondered if she had overstepped her boundaries with him by asking too many questions about her. He didn't seem to mind talking about what he knew about Raine thanks to Ellone but when it came to what he remembered about her, he shut down. Rinoa's smile faltered, only briefly, but she swallowed and gave Squall a friendly pat to the shoulder. _Did I upset you? Because I kept bringing up that you can't even remember the sound of her laugh… _she thought to herself. _Probably…I'd get upset too if someone kept reminding me._

"Drive safe," she said, moving to take a step back.

Before she could get too far, his hand snaked through the open window and caught her wrist.

Rinoa looked at his hand wrapped around her wrist and watched warily as he moved his fingers over the surface of her hand, his fingers binding around hers and bringing her hand up to his lips.

He laid a soft kiss across her knuckles. With his gaze still stormy and jaw set like stone, he said, "Five weeks, Rinoa."

Rinoa swallowed but gave him a wide grin. "I'll see you," she said back. "Drive safe," she said again, this time her fingers tightening a bit to give his fingers a squeeze.

Squall let his lips brush over her knuckles once more and steadily held her gaze. "Thank you," he whispered.

* * *

When Selphie had herself safely buckled into Rinoa's Cube and they started driving off, she looked over at the little red gift bag that was tucked into the center console. "Ooh! Did you go shopping?"

"Huh? Oh…no…"

Selphie fished through the tissue paper and pulled out the mermaid mug. "Ooooh…this is cute! Where'd this come from?"

"Oh, um, Squall bought it for me…when they were in Dollet."

Selphie hardly placed any reaction to Rinoa's statement and turned the mug over to look at all the details. "Super cute. The mermaid looks like you." She carefully wrapped the mug back into the tissue paper and placed it back into the center console. "So. You tapping that or what?"

Rinoa spurted out a laugh and covered her mouth. "Selphie!"

"What? I'm curious! You could cut through that sexual tension like _butter._"

Rinoa chuckled and reached over to give Selphie a quick pinch. "Shut up."

"Well, he does like you. Irvine told me that whenever your name comes up Squall always gets this little far away dreamy look in his eye. Oh! And Quistis told me that whenever someone—usually Hans—makes a comment about how hot you are, Squall gets a little fired up. Never _says_ anything but…they know him well enough to notice the change in his demeanor. Ooh! And _Zell _said…"

"What, is everyone trying to push us together?" Rinoa laughed.

Selphie dropped her hands into her lap and gave Rinoa a smile. "I don't think you guys need any kind of pushing. I'm sure you're able to do all that on your own. We were just talking about how we noticed that there's…_something_…going on between you two."

"Well we haven't entirely figured out that _something_ yet," Rinoa said.

"Because of the tour?"

Rinoa shrugged. "It just makes more sense to us to talk things out when he gets back."

"True."

"I mean, I've done the whole long-distance relationship thing and it's not easy so I don't know…"

Selphie made a face. "Yeah but wasn't that with _Seifer?_ Maybe it didn't work out because it wasn't with the right person."

"I can't really argue with that," Rinoa giggled. "With Seifer it was purely physical, we weren't really able to _talk_ much."

"Do you and Squall talk a lot?"

"No, not a lot…but he asks questions that hold more meaning…you know? Like, he'll ask about my dad, my mom, what got me into photography, what project I'm working on now…stuff like that." Rinoa swallowed and nervously bit her bottom lip. "And usually he'll answer questions I ask him but…well, I think I went a little overboard today."

"How you mean?" Selphie asked, leaning back into her seat.

"I asked about his mom."

Selphie nodded her head. "Ah."

"And even though he's told me that he doesn't remember much about her, I keep talking and talking and asking about her. It's like I keep digging myself into a hole because I haven't figured out when to _shut up._"

Selphie gave Rinoa's thigh a little pat. "I'm sure he's not upset at you. He gets quiet for _millions_ of reasons. He was probably trying to think. If he did get upset it probably wasn't at _you_ but more so that he _couldn't_ remember much about her," she said, mirroring Rinoa's own thoughts about the subject.

"Maybe," Rinoa sighed. "I just wish I knew my boundaries with him so I'd know what not to overstep."

"Oh please," Selphie scoffed. "You can't know _all_ the boundaries when you start a new relationship. Where's the fun in that?" She tried not to laugh when she noticed Rinoa bite her lip at the mention of 'new relationship.' "Hey…I can call it something else if it'd make you feel more comfortable? I mean, you cannot deny that there is a mutual attraction between you two! And I have a feeling it's more than just physical attraction." Before Rinoa could respond, Selphie reached over and turned on the radio, filling the car with Mistress Mecia's smokey laughter.

"Hello my beautiful children," she purred through the speakers. "For this lazy Monday evening I'm going to replay pieces of my interview with Absolute Lore from yesterday. If you were able to I hope you enjoyed their show up in Winhill last night. If not, don't you worry babies, I had a camera crew there last night and the video has already been uploaded onto the Ultimate Rock FFVIII web page."

For the rest of the drive Rinoa and Selphie listened to Absolute Lore's interview. When it came to the part where Squall was asked about the inspiration behind _Stars_, Rinoa sucked in a breath.

_Mecia: "And was that great night spent __**alone?**__"_

Squall didn't say anything back to her, instead he was quiet but Rinoa could hear the slight exhale of a short sigh that he tried to disguise as a laugh. She could only imagine the look on his face. When the interview came back to him and Mecia asked him if he was going to start writing more, Rinoa followed Quistis' instructions and listened.

_Squall: "I find it easier to write than to speak. It's easier to get the words out."_

_Zell: "Yeah, he's not the most eloquent little fucker."_

Rinoa giggled when she heard a noise follow that quip that sounded an awful lot like a boot hitting a hard shin. She looked over to Selphie and saw her rolling her eyes and trying not to laugh.

_Irvine: "Even though he is terrible with __**voicing**__ his feelings, Squall is able to really put down into words how he feels. The lyrics of Stars are simple, yes, but when I read them and we were able to work it into the beat he and Zell created…they were __**dripping**__ with meaning, with emotion. I mean…I was taken aback."_

_Quistis: "He hadn't written lyrics in a while—at least, not for an __**entire**__ song. Squall will normally help piece together a chorus or add in a line here or there. He hasn't written a song in its entirety in quite some time so I'm really glad that he's back to writing because…seriously…Stars is __**amazing.**__"_

_Squall: "Thank you."_

_Mecia: "Thank __**you**__ for writing it! I've listened to it a few times already and I'm just…blown away by it. We are extremely grateful that you are back into writing lyrics and not just music. You should do it more."_

_Irvine: "Methinks he's got himself a little muse for inspiration."_

There was no sound immediately after, and Rinoa could _feel_ the heated glare that Squall was shooting towards the cowboy. A nervous chuckle came from Quistis and then a loud guffaw from Zell.

_Zell: "Sweet, now I'm not the one Squall's pissed at."_

_Mecia: "Hey, having a muse is wonderful! Remind me to thank her for expanding your creativity."_

_Squall: "I'll be sure to thank her for you."_

Even Rinoa rose her brows at the very scant hint of flirtation laced in his retort.

_Mecia: "So there __**is **__a 'her!'" _

The rest of the band laughed along with Mecia and then the interview immediately turned towards how the tour was going and how it was like reuniting with a band they had played with previously.

Selphie scooted closer to Rinoa nuzzled against her shoulder. "Ooooooh…Squall's got a crush on someone!" she sang. "Now, who could that person possibly be? Who is Squally's little muse?"

"I haven't the slightest idea of what you are talking about," Rinoa said despite the blush that reddened her entire face. Clearing her throat, she attempted to turn the conversation onto another subject. "How do you and Irvine make it work? Besides fuck like rabbits when he gets back?"

Selphie chuckled but it slowly died down to an almost awkward groan. "It's not easy, I will admit." She sighed and leaned back into her seat. "I haven't really been talking about it but…we've been arguing a lot over the phone. Nothing too crazy…just…he's so damn exhausted by the time he's able to talk on the phone with me that I feel like he's sleeping through our conversations."

Rinoa paused. "Oh. I'm so sorry."

Selphie shrugged. "It was bound to happen. I mean, we went from seeing each other almost every day to maybe every few weeks or so. We tried to talk about it the other night but…"

"You guys were drunk."

"Yep!"

It grew quiet for a few breaths and Rinoa cautiously took a glance at Selphie. The brunette was simply staring out ahead of her, her green eyes staring straight out through the windshield as Rinoa kept a steady speed. "You ok?" she asked gently.

Selphie twisted her lips and turned her head towards Rinoa. "Yeah, I'm ok," she sighed. "We don't know what the future holds for us. To be honest I'm a little hesitant to think too far ahead, I think for now we'll just take it one day at a time." She gave Rinoa a smile. "I mean, what else is there to do? I love him. He loves me."

"What more do you need?" Rinoa grinned, quickly scooping up Selphie's hand and giving it a gentle squeeze. "You two have love, it'll sort itself out in time. And besides, wouldn't knowing exactly what your future holds kind of ruin it? Taking it day by day, not knowing _exactly_ where it may lead is part of the fun!"

Selphie laughed. "How is it that one is able to give the best advice and yet not take the advice for themselves?"

* * *

**Two weeks later…**

Squall stepped into Djinn Theory's tour bus and cocked his head when he saw Irvine sitting at the edge of one of the cots. He had his head down, elbow bent as it rested against his knee so his massaged his forehead. He sighed, shifting slightly and Squall saw that in Irvine's other hand was his phone, pressed against his ear so tightly that his knuckles were white.

"Fine," Irvine mumbled, his voice gruff. "Look, I love you—babe?" He pulled the phone away and growled when he saw that the screen was blank. "Fuck," he muttered, dropping the phone onto the cot. He glanced up and saw Squall standing before him.

Squall slowly swallowed the bite of the burrito he held in his hand. The silence between them was thick, save for Squall's chewing. "You alright?" he finally asked.

Irvine scoffed and leaned back against the tour bus wall. "Hope you brought beer."

With a soft click of his tongue, Squall turned and picked up his duffle bag from beneath his own cot. "Got you one better," he said, sliding out a half full bottle of Jack Daniels. He unscrewed the cap and handed it to Irvine before sitting on the cot across from him.

Irvine graciously accepted the bottle and took a long swig of the bottle. Between them were only the sounds of the whiskey sloshing back and forth within the glass and Squall finishing off his food.

"It's Selphie," Irvine finally said.

Squall said nothing, only crumpled up the wrapper to his burrito and swiftly tossed it into the waste basket to the right of him.

"She's hasn't been feeling well the last few days so I haven't been calling her so she can rest." Irvine groaned and took another swig before handing the bottle to Squall. The cowboy undid his ponytail and let his waves fall around his shoulders. "Of course this makes me a complete dick because I'm not communicating with her."

Squall could only nod as he listened to Irvine summarize the near hour long conversation that he and Selphie just had. As Irvine went on, Squall let his mind wander to his own conversations with Rinoa. They were brief and mostly in text so responses were sometimes hours apart.

"As we talk more and more about it we've come to realize that this is something we knew was most likely going to happen," Irvine said.

"Well, even though you 'knew' it was going to happen is it worth throwing away your relationship?" Squall took a quick swig before passing the bottle back.

Irvine scoffed and took hold of the Jack. "I don't believe so," he answered. "And honestly I don't think Selphie thinks so either. I think she's just…frustrated. I don't know. Every time she wants to talk and update each other about shit there's _nothing_ to talk about. We're doing the same shit every night. If we're not playing a show we're hanging out at a bar or in the band's room. There is nothing exciting to fill her in with but she insists that there has to be _something_ for me to talk about."

Squall took a breath and rotated his shoulders backward, groaning when he felt the muscles in his torso pop. "So then, what's the problem? Are you planning on ending it with Selphie or something?"

"No," Irvine said firmly, shaking his head. "The problem is I don't know _what_ the fucking problem is. And if she knows what the problem is she sure isn't fucking telling me." He released an aggravated sigh and chugged at the bottle. "The other problem is I'm not drunk enough for this shit."

"Sorry, man," Squall said, watching him finish off the bottle.

Irvine shrugged and let out a long belch. "Yeah. Well…I'll try and call her in the morning. See if I can catch her right before her class." He stood to his feet and ran his fingers through his hair. "I'm gonna see if Hans will let me use his shower. I think the hot water is out in the bus so I hope you weren't planning on showering here."

"Hans is with Zell and Quistis at the movies," Squall said. "They wanted to see the new Tarantino film."

"Hans still trying to get in with Quistis?"

Squall shrugged. "Between those two? I think the chase is better than the catch." Squall lifted his brows and quickly played the drum beat to Motorhead's song across his abdomen. "Royce and Fujin are still in the room I think."

Irvine nodded, wiggled his fingers as if he were playing _Chase is Better Than the Catch's_ guitar riff and reached behind him to pull his hair back into a ponytail. "Decided not to party with them tonight?"

"Uh…not really." Squall wasn't about to mention that he had a video chat date with Rinoa but the look that Irvine sent him told him that the cowboy had a slight inkling as to what Squall's motives were.

Irvine gave Squall a pat to the shoulder and offered a grin. "If you need it my laptop's under my pillow."

After Irvine left, Squall sighed and pulled out the aforementioned laptop and nestled it upon his thighs as he situated himself against the wall of the bus. His phone beeped and he flicked his thumb over the screen to read Rinoa's text.

_R.H: Hey. Just logged in =)_

_S.L: Ok. I'm borrowing Irvine's laptop._

Squall logged on and immediately breathed a contented sigh when Rinoa's smiling face filled the screen. "Hey," he said, smirking when he saw that she was leaning forward towards her computer screen, her delicate chin balanced upon her crossed fingers.

"Hey!" Rinoa smiled brightly and Squall noticed the tint of red that colored her luscious lips.

"New lipstick?" he asked.

Rinoa chuckled and her nose crinkled a bit at the action. "Yeah. I was with Frannie earlier today," she said, referring to the subject of her next project: a boudoir photoshoot a woman wanted as a gift for her husband to be, "and we went out and played with makeup. We also went corset shopping."

Squall's brows rose a fraction and his eyes immediately dipped down towards the bottom of the screen, only to see that his view of her body stopped just short of her collar bone if she moved away her hands. "Did you now?"

Rinoa ran the tip of her tongue between her teeth and she giggled. "I did. Frannie and I had a little too much fun at the lingerie store…"

Before Squall could ask if Rinoa had _bought_ anything at this particular lingerie store, Rinoa scooted back and stood to her feet so the entire top half of her body was in camera view. The corset looked simple at first, a satiny black material that encased her small torso. Along the tops of her breasts were little white frills of lace and beads, accentuating the now exaggerated cleavage that Squall was feasting his eyes on.

"Holy…" His grip on the laptop faltered and it slid off his thighs and landed upon the cot's mattress. "Fuck!" He scrambled to right the computer, his ears burning as he heard Rinoa's laughter ringing through the speakers.

"Squall? You ok?"

Squall got the laptop upright and he pressed his lips together and cleared his throat, hardly able to look directly into Rinoa's eyes. "I'm fine," he muttered.

Rinoa giggled and she sat back down. "Did you like my new corset?" she teased.

"Yes," Squall nodded, moving his eyes back to meet hers. "I politely request that you wear your new corset the next time we meet."

"Really…" she purred. "I think I can arrange that."

"Good. I'm glad to hear it."

"You excited for your show tomorrow night?" Rinoa asked. "Did you come up with any new songs?"

Squall shook his head and leaned back against the wall of the bus. "Nah. We probably won't get too focused on writing new material until we get back. We've been fucking around with a few rhythms but nothing that's melded into a full on song yet."

"Well I can't wait to hear new songs from you. I heard _Stars_ on the radio today as me and Frannie were driving. Everyone is just _loving_ it." Rinoa grinned widely. "Pretty soon you guys will start seeing chicks with the lyrics tatted along their collarbones or on the inside of their bicep."

The thought made Squall laugh aloud. "You should get the lyrics right across here," he said, aiming the laptop's camera towards his lower abdomen. "You know, just so it peeks right above your panties."

"Oh yeah? So that way when you're on top of me our tattoos can be buddies?"

Squall let out another rare laugh, this one loud enough for him to immediately cover his mouth with his hand. "I think it'd be sexy."

"I think I'll get _"I move the stars for no one"_ right above my panties," she said with a giggle. "But then that would really only be funny if all my panties had some kind of star motif on them…"

"Do you plan on getting any more tattoos?" Squall asked, shaking his head at the mental image.

Rinoa shrugged but gave Squall a smoldering, heated grin. "I'm not sure. What about you?"

"Eventually. I've been debating on whether or not I want a sleeve but I haven't decided if I want to start from my wrist up or shoulder down."

"Well, you'll be in Esthar soon. If you want I can try and get a hold of Raymond and see if he's still got a studio out there." Soon the conversation moved into tattoo ideas that they once had for themselves back when they were younger and together they laughed at themselves before Rinoa sighed and brushed a strand of black behind her ears. Her brow arched and she glanced over her shoulder.

"What's up?" Squall asked.

Rinoa giggled and scrunched her nose in amusement before she lifted her eyes to meet Squall's. "Guess what's on the radio right now?"

Squall made a face. "Wow, I hope they don't over play the shit out of it," he muttered.

"Oh, don't be a killjoy!" Rinoa teased. "I don't think anyone can get tired of it. I know _I _won't ever get tired of it," she said with a gleaming smile. "And really, as long is I like it then that's all that matters."

Squall laughed. "Well, it is ideal that you wouldn't get sick of it."

Rinoa's laughter simmered to a slow and easy chuckle within her throat. "I don't think I could ever get tired of it," she said again, her voice just barely over a murmur.

"Oh yeah? And why is that?" He felt his heart quicken a beat when he watched Rinoa shyly run her fingers through her hair, her dark eyes aimed downwards while she nibbled her bottom lip. God, how he wanted to sink his fingers into her hair and pull her to him right at that moment…how he so yearned to just hold her and breathe in her intoxicating scent.

"Because…" she said softly. "It reminds me of the night before you left. You know…how we were beneath the stars…" Rinoa trailed off and Squall noticed the faint blush that hinted upon her cheeks. "Every time I hear it I'm brought back to that night, so...no, I don't think I ever could get tired of it." Finally she lifted her gaze to him and Squall could see the hesitation that rested in her eyes.

Before the silence could grow thick with any doubt, Squall grinned and nodded. "I'm glad," he told her simply.

Rinoa shrugged her shoulders. "Yeah?"

"Yeah," Squall assured her. "Because I wrote it for you."

* * *

**"Chase is Better Than the Catch" lyrics by Motorhead**

**"Within You" lyrics by David Bowie**


	27. Chapter 27

**A/N: Sorry it's a bit late! Originally I wanted this posted for Valentine's Day but...yeah. At least I made it for Rinoa's birthday!**

* * *

Rinoa exhaled a breath and turned off the computer. She and Squall had already said their farewells and she had long since logged off…but after looking at the clock she realized she had zoned out and stared at the screen for a few minutes after Squall was already gone. She cleared her throat and slowly spinned around in her chair.

Her heart beat rapidly and she pressed her lips together as she casually stood to her feet. Behind her she heard the computer's hums and whirs come to a halt and she rose her fingers to her lips. Quietly she squealed and excitedly danced in place.

Squall wrote a song for her.

No…Squall wrote _Stars_ for her.

Rinoa's lips were pressed so tightly together that her teeth started to hurt the sensitive flesh.

Squall. Wrote. A _song._ Based off of…

Rinoa couldn't hold it in this time. She let out a shrill scream of excitement and happily stomped her feet. After a few moments she felt banging through the floor from the people below her. "Sorry!" she cried, immediately stopping her dancing and quietly backed out of her office so she could make her way into the kitchen. "Holy shit…holy shit…" Rinoa fanned her nails over her face as she felt her skin grow warm.

Still incredibly giddy, she twirled around on one foot across the lanolieum tile. Then she suddenly stopped. What did this mean? She had no idea—had no chance to ask him since not long after Squall had admitted that _Stars _was written for her, Quistis stumbled into the tour bus and raced into the bathroom.

What would have been an extremely romantic moment between Squall and Rinoa was soon ruined by the echoing sounds of Quistis retching. Squall's face was priceless. His expression of pure incredulity showed Rinoa that this instance did not happen often. "Uh…everything alright?" he had called to Quistis.

"Bad…sushi!" was all Rinoa could hear of Quistis' response.

Squall made a face of disgust. Apparently Quistis, Zell, and Hans decided to stop for sushi before they caught a movie and…did not make it to the theatre. According to Quistis, the boys were in the hotel's bathroom and she got stuck with the tour bus.

Rinoa chuckled to herself as she thought about the face Squall made before signing off. He told her he would try to talk to her before his show the following night and proceeded to prepare himself to take care of the poor and sickly Quistis.

She glanced down at her ample cleavage that was so generously on display thanks to her new corset and ran her hands over the rounded flesh. A playful grin curved into her red lips and, again, she did a twirl. She paused, blinking as she caught her reflection in the shiny surface of her oven.

"Why the fuck am I twirling so much?!"

* * *

A few days went by before Rinoa was able to see Selphie. Rinoa wanted to gush and twirl and giggle about Squall the moment she walked into the café, but when she saw the look on Selphie's face and the tired dark circles beneath her eyes, Rinoa immediately swallowed any and all giddiness. "Selphie? Everything ok?" she asked, lowering herself into the seat across from the petite brunette.

Selphie ran her fingertips over her brow, pressing deep to massage the flesh. She curled her lip in a soft growl. "Ugh…I don't know what's going on anymore," she muttered, her usually cheerful voice practically void of any happy emotion.

Rinoa leaned her arms across the table top and gently took Selphie's hands into her own. "You want to talk about it? What's wrong?"

Selphie lifted her eyes to meet Rinoa's and made a tiny grimace. "Nothing," she whined. "And yet…everything."

"Is it Irvine?"

Selphie retracted her hands and leaned back against the seat cushions. Her attention quickly turned to the server that approached them.

"What can I get you?" the young girl asked, her gaze pausing over Selphie with eyes that were loaded with questions but the courtesy to not delve.

"Um, just a hot chocolate, please," Selphie decided.

The girl nodded. "You got it. And for you?" she asked Rinoa.

"Iced vanilla coffee, please."

"Coming up." The girl turned on her heel and disappeared behind the counter.

"A little late for coffee, isn't it?" Selphie asked, glancing at her watch.

"I don't have work in the morning."

When the girl returned with their drinks, Selphie grinned widely at the large mountain of whipped cream covered with rainbow sprinkles, chocolate shavings, and two cherries plopped right on top. "Thank you," she whispered to her.

The girl gave her a smile and was gone again.

"Remind me to leave her a large tip," Selphie chuckled. "What a gem."

Rinoa smiled softly and let her gaze wander across the coffee shop while Selphie endulged herself a few hearty slurps of hot chocolate. "If you want to talk about it," she said lowly, "I'm all ears. If you want to sit in comfy silence while we drink our drinks, we can do that too. However, we can also sit in comfy silence at my place but with _wine._" She lifted her brows suggestively when Selphie cracked a smile. "Just putting that out there."

Selphie laughed. "God, I love you," she said.

"And I love you."

With a sigh, Selphie twirled a finger into the whipped cream. "I've just been picking fights for no reason," she muttered. "My mood swings are going haywire and like…I'll be fine, then Irvine calls and I'm _so excited_ to hear from him and we're giggly and cutesy and then like ten minutes later I'm bawling because he's not here and making him feel like shit that he's not here. Rinoa, this is his _dream_…why am I fighting his dream?"

"Because you miss him. The heart takes over and makes the mind do stupid things when it's lonely." Rinoa took a deep breath and watched as Selphie scooped the whipped cream and cherries into her mouth. "Only a few more weeks until they're back, surely you can just hold out til then?"

Selphie exhaled a soft laugh and shrugged. "Sounds so easy to do, don't it?"

"I'm sure it's easier said than done," Rinoa agreed with a sigh. "When did you last talk to him?"

"The other day. Monday, I think." Selphie frowned and rubbed her forehead. "My days are running together it seems."

Rinoa twisted her lips. Monday was three nights ago. That was the last time she had talked to Squall aside from their usual brief text messages. "Have you called him at all?"

Selphie shook her head. "No, he texted me Tuesday night after their show and said that they were going to call it an early night because I guess Zell and Quistis had some bad sushi the night before. All I did was send him a little emoji of a kissy face and that was it."

"You need to stop being so mean to him."

"I know!" Selphie wailed with a pout. She pulled out her phone and opened up a new text message to Irvine.

_S.T: I loooooooove you =D xoxoxoxox_

Selphie sighed and put the phone back into her purse. "I think it's around eleven where he's at right now." She twisted her lips and took another deep breath. "Is that offer of wine at your place still good?"

Rinoa gave her a playful kick beneath the table. "Girl, you know it _always_ is! How about we call it a late dinner and get some take out?"

"Don't need to ask me twice!"

"How about…we just have a sleepover! I don't work tomorrow, you don't have class tomorrow, it's perfect! I think I have a spare toothbrush if you need one. And I've got _plenty_ of pajamas you can use," Rinoa smiled.

Selphie stood to her feet and the two left arm in arm. "Seriously, what would I ever do without you?"

* * *

Squall downed the rest of his beer and crushed the can within his fist. He looked down to Quistis who was laying with the back of her head in his lap while her eyes were trained on the television before them. Even though the food poisoning was far beyond out of her system, her normally fair complexion was still a sickly shade of pale. He glanced over to Zell, who was leaning against the front of the couch. Squall had to give them props, throwing up nearly the entire night was not enough to make the two blondes pull away from the stage. While their movements were calm and not as animated, they made sure they were giving their audience the show they had come to see.

_Dedication,_ Squall thought. He reached over and grabbed a shiny red aluminum bottle with the words 'QUEEN' printed across it and held it over Quistis' face. "Drink up."

Without removing her attention from the screen, Quistis reached up and took hold of the bottle. As she unscrewed the cap the little rubber straw popped up and she quietly sipped. After a few gulps she handed the bottle back to Squall.

Zell let out a low belch and made a small grimace, his hand gently rubbing over his ribs.

"You alright?"

"Yes, Papa Squall, I'm fine," Zell grumbled.

Squall frowned. "'_Papa_?'"

"You've definitely taken the role of Papa right now," Zell said. "Taking care of me and Quistis ever since that dastardly night with the…_sushi_." He made a face at the word, his stomach still turning at the thought of it.

Quistis pouted. She loved sushi. It was one of her favorite foods. She only hoped that this one negative incident didn't ruin it for her permanently.

"Well, someone has to," Squall said, a little annoyed that Irvine had practically left him with babysitting duty ever since Quistis came into the tour bus to throw up. He knew that he couldn't be too upset with the cowboy, he was simply just trying to keep his mind off his relationship woes with Selphie. At the moment, he was at the local billard pub with Eli and a few other members of Doomtrain and Odin's Blade. _Dumbass even left his phone,_ he thought, looking over to the slim contraption that still rested on the end table by the couch. Irvine had forgotten to plug it in so now the phone was just sitting there dead.

After a few minutes of scrolling Hans's social media, Squall was able to deduce that he had joined them as well. At the sight of the half empty beer mug in his hands, it was quite obvious that he was feeling much better from the food poisoning than the two blondes still in the room.

"Don't make him angry," Quistis groaned, pulling her phone out from between the couch cushions. She held the phone up before her face, her eyes squinting at the bright light. As she went through her camera roll, smirking and chuckling to herself as she found random pictures she had taken while at bars, on the road, at random gas stations…then she came upon one photo that she had taken their last night in Winhill.

Stealthily she stole a quick glance at Squall from behind her phone. He was staring straight ahead, his attention solely on the television screen ahead of them, completely engrossed with the documentary that played.

Quistis opened up a new text message and placed the photo in question into the text box. Without typing in any message in conjunction with the picture, Quistis hit send and pressed her lips together to suppress a chuckle.

The action did not go unnoticed. Squall frowned and looked down at her. "What?" he muttered.

Quistis widened her eyes in innocence. "Hm?"

He didn't say anything else, only narrowed his eyes further in suspicion.

* * *

Rinoa turned her head when she heard her phone chime. She reached for it and shrugged when Selphie asked her what it was. "Oh, Quistis sent me a picture," she said. "How're you feeling?" she asked, looking at the little brunette who was curled up on the other side of the couch with a pillow tucked beneath her head.

"That wine made me _sleepy_," she replied through a yawn.

"You didn't even finish your glass!" Rinoa said, reaching over to pick up the wine glass that still held about three gulps left. "Look at this, woman, there are sober people in Timber, what's wrong with you?"

Selphie giggled and playfully stretched out her legs to kick at Rinoa's thighs. "Shut your mouth!"

"Ah! You'll make me spill!" Rinoa quickly tossed back the room temperature wine and smacked her tongue against the roof of her mouth. "Brat." She grinned and pulled Selphie's legs to rest upon her lap. Then she turned her gaze back to her phone and opened the message from Quistis.

Immediately Rinoa's eyes nearly jumped from their sockets. The picture was of her and Squall, on the bed, in the hotel room. _Ohmygod,_ she thought. _When did she get this? _

The photograph was not risqué in any shape or form, in fact it was excrutiatingly tender and sweet. Rinoa's back was to the camera, her face buried in Squall's t-shirt and her hand curled up into the fabric. It was obvious that they were both fully clothed and there was no evidence of the intense fucking that had taken place in the bathroom prior. His left arm was draped over her in a warm and protective embrace. Rinoa couldn't quite see it in the picture, but it seemed that his right arm was beneath the pillow for support. His eyes were closed, strands of his brown hair had fallen across his forehead. Rinoa found that she was staring at his lips, suddenly feeling her heart beat quicken as she thought back to how they felt along the curve of her neck.

_How did…__**why**__ does she have this?_ Rinoa responded to the picture message with a little emoji that had its mouth dropped open and its eyes large and wide.

Quistis came back with an emoji that resembled the devil and with the words _teeheehee!_

_R.H: OMG!_

_Q.T: Aren't you guys cuuuuuuuuuuuute?!_

_R.H: Does Squall know you took this?_

_Q.T: I'm alive and talking to you._

_Q.T: So._

_Q.T: No._

_Q.T: =P_

_R.H: You sneaky little minx._

_Q.T: I couldn't resist. You guys were snuggling. It was cute!_

_R.H: Stalker!_

_Q.T: I never!_

Rinoa crinkled her noise in quiet laughter. She saved the picture to her phone.

"What's so funny?" Selphie asked.

Rinoa handed the phone to Selphie. "Since you were in Irvine's room," she began.

Selphie choked on a giggle as she looked at the picture. "Holy shit…Squall's cuddling! And with you! Excuse me while my ovaries start exploding." She handed the phone back to Rinoa with a large grin. "Seriously. You guys are my OTP."

Rinoa gave Selphie's leg a soft smack. "What the—shut up!"

"You're blushing!"

"Am not!"

* * *

Squall went outside for a cigarette and also to get a break from the two blondes. They couldn't agree on what to watch next. Zell wanted to continue watching the documentary _Making a Murderer_ while Quistis wanted to watch _Ghostbusters._

"You've seen that movie a million times!" Zell argued. "Let's watch something new—something we haven't seen yet!"

"That documentary is depressing and watching it only makes me angry and wanna throw something!" Quistis had snarled. "I'd have to be drunk to watch that shit and my stomach—fuck,_ your_ stomach even!—can't handle alcohol right now!"

"Squalllllllllll!" Zell whined.

"Papaaaaaaaa!" Quistis joined in.

With a growl Squall stood to his feet and dropped the remote onto the floor. "Fuck this," he muttered. "You two duke it out yourselves. Honestly, I can expect this type of behavior from Zell, but not _you_, Quistis." He narrowed his eyes at the woman who began to pout.

"Normally I would be the more adult one in this situation," Quistis sighed, sitting upright on the couch. "However, I am drained and oh so very sickly, therefore, I am going to milk this whiney attitude that is typically equated to Zell."

Zell scoffed and rolled his eyes before laying supine on the floor. "Oh, you've done it now," he grumbled to Squall. "You wounded her pride and now she's bringing out the eloquent siren that we've all come to know and love. On occasion."

"Figure it out," Squall said, waving his hand at them and exiting the room.

As he exited the hotel he walked far enough so that his cigarette smoke would be a fair distance away from the main entrance. He walked by a couple in their late thirties that had a small toddler in tow. The father had the little child against his chest so that the child's mouth was squished and pushed open in comfortable sleep, a little trail of drool seeping through.

"Think he had fun?" Squall heard the mother ask.

"I sure hope so," responded the father. "With the prices of those tickets he'd better have enjoyed it!"

The mother made a noise of disgust but the smile on her face showed that she knew the father was playing, joking or not. "Is that all you care about?" she teased before they disappeared through the sliding doors.

Squall placed a cigarette between his lips and rounded the side of the hotel. He remembered seeing a little break area, presumably for when the hotel staff needed a smoke break, and headed towards that. He knew that there was another area behind the gated border of the hotel by its pool, but he didn't want to be near the public. It was a warm night and since it was Summer, the pool's hours had been extended greatly for hotel guests.

He cupped his hands around the cigarette, his fingers skillfully flicking the lighter. As he reached the break area he came across Fujin, who was sitting at the sturdy picnic table, one hand speared into her hair, her elbow resting atop the table's surface, her eye staring at the phone that rested in her other hand.

She took notice of Squall and lifted her chin at him in acknowledgement.

"Everything alright?" He only asked out of automatic politeness, but when he saw Fujin take a deep breath and drop her phone onto the table, he inwardly groaned. _Dammit,_ he thought, he didn't want to hear this.

"My mom," Fujin said.

Squall's eyebrow arched at her words. The last time he had heard anything about Fujin's mother was when she had told him about her mother's abusive boyfriend. He didn't say anything more, just quietly sighed and pulled out his cigarettes. With a small shake of the pack he offered her one.

Fujin's eye traveled towards the pack and her lips twisted in temptation, but she shook her head. "I can't take any chances with my beautiful vocal chords," she purred, delicately tracing her fingertips up her throat. She scoffed and leaned back against the metal chair.

"Point taken." Reluctantly, he sat down across from her and sucked on his cigarette. "So what's going on with your mom?"

Fujin twisted her lips and slowly tapped her fingernail across the screen of her phone. "She just texted me," she said softly. "Told me she's getting married." Fujin ran her fingers through her hair and let out a puff of breath. "To the motherfucker that did this." She pointed a clawed nail to her eyepatch and scowled.

Squall rolled his tongue in his mouth as he took in that information. From his and Fujin's last conversation about her mother, she made it very clear that they were not on the best terms. "I didn't know they were back together," he said.

"Neither did I!" she wailed. "I mean…I can't remember the last time we had a full on conversation about her love life…but she definitely did _not_ mention that she was back with him! And then this text? A _text_? That not only is she getting married but she's _marrying_ the guy who clocked my brains out!"

Squall could only nod as Fujin continued on and released her frustration.

"Ugh, I just can't believe it," Fujin went on. "It's not like I was the only one he hurt, you know? Even though I never _saw_ him hit her I remember seeing bruises on her arms from time to time."

Squall leaned over and stubbed out his cigarette into the nearby ash tray. "Are you planning on seeing her soon?" he asked, pulling out another cigarette.

Fujin sucked on her bottom lip and Squall noticed that it was trembling. "I don't know," she whispered, her voice shaking. She let out a tiny laugh and sniffled. "I haven't seen her in person in…fuck. Two years maybe? I don't know…"

As he listened, Squall exhaled a long stream of smoke through his teeth. This was where Squall couldn't relate with Fujin's situation. She still had much love for her mother. It didn't matter what the boyfriend had done, she was still her mother and Fujin would still love her. In his case, he couldn't care less about his foster parents. After Ellone had rescued him, Squall never looked back and never gave his foster parents a positive thought.

"Well," he said with a sigh. "If you do choose to see your mom and her future husband gives you any trouble, call me."

Fujin gave a soft smile and stood to her feet. Being polite, Squall followed suit.

"You're so sweet," she murmured, not looking at him directly and letting her gaze float along the sky behind him. She twisted her red lips into a grimace and looked as if she were fighting back tears. "She says she loves him and that is all that matters. Does love really blind a person that badly?"

"I'm not even going to pretend to understand your mom's reasoning for staying with her abuser. She has her reasons, even if they don't make sense to us. Hell, her reasons may not even make sense to her. What you can do is help her when she asks for it—silently or verbally."

Fujin nodded slowly and crossed her arms over her chest. "I just don't think she believes she needs help."

"Then just be available for her. Listen to her. Send the cops on welfare checks on her if you feel you have to."

"Yeah…I'll call her in the morning. Maybe with video chat so I can see her." She let out an exasperated groan and leaned in to Squall's chest. "Thank you for listening to me," she grumbled. "I know being vented to is not particularly your most favorite pastime."

"We're friends," he said simply, wrapping an arm around her while keeping the hand with the cigarette close to his mouth. "Say the word and I'm there. We all will be. You know Zell will bring the muscle if it's ever needed."

Fujin chuckled. "Yeah. I'm just so grateful that I have you guys in my life."

Squall took a long and final drag off his cigarette. "Let's get you back inside." He pulled away from her and crushed the cigarette into the stone ashtray.

Before he could step away, Fujin grabbed his wrists and pulled him back to her. Squall's eyes widened and before he could say anything she wrapped her arms around his neck and lifted her lips towards his.

"Fujin—"

She pulled him to her and pressed her lips to his, slipping her tongue into his open mouth.

It was reminiscent of the last time this happened between them. Fujin was so raw with emotion and Squall knew what she had gone through even if his situation was not entirely similar. But that time was different. Much different. At that time, he didn't have someone waiting for him back home.

He thought about Rinoa with her sparkling brown eyes and the way her nose crinkled when she laughed, thought about the way she would stun him into momentary stupor with her little quips and one-liners. In his mind he saw the picture she had posted earlier that morning of the mug he had bought her from the amusement park in Dollet. Beneath the picture read the caption _"My new favorite mug." _

Squall firmly latched his fingers around Fujin's wrists and pulled away. "What are you doing?" he asked quietly, his brows frowning and his mouth pulling into a tight grimace when Fujin tried to lean forward again.

A small noise caught his attention and he turned to see Quistis and Hans staring at them. While Hans quietly laughed and reached for his phone, Quistis looked damn near horrified. Her eyes were large and wide, the aquamarine orbs completely surrounded by white while her mouth was parted in terror. The unlit cigarette between her fingers fell to the ground.

Squall froze. "Quistis…no—this isn't—"

Squall was interrupted by a blinding flash from Hans's phone. The bastard had taken a picture. When Squall was able to focus his eyes again he saw that Quistis and Hans were gone, with only the echo of Hans's very amused chuckle left behind.

"Fuck," he muttered, knowing he had to find Quistis and explain to her. He looked down to Fujin who was looking at him in curiosity.

Her red lips were open in question, but she was looking at him with such patience as she waited to see if he would start yelling. Slowly she pulled away, lowering her eye before glancing to the open space where Quistis had been standing. "Ohmygod…" she hurriedly rushed out. "Are you and Quistis…? I'm so sorry. I thought that…I mean, your rule…"

Squall released Fujin's wrists and watched her turn away and scoop up her phone. "I'm not with Quistis," he said. "But…there is someone."

Fujin whirled around, her exposed eye wide in shock. "There is?" she whispered. "I…I didn't know!" She clamped a hand over her mouth, her face nearly turning a shade of red to match her lipstick. "Fuck—I am _so_ sorry!"

"Stop." Squall gripped her by the shoulders to bring her wild fidgeting to a standstill. "You didn't know."

"Still, I'm sorry," she whispered, hardly able to hold his gaze now. "I just…I hadn't realized you had a girlfriend."

"She's not…" Squall sighed and looked away. He wasn't in the mood to discuss his situation with Rinoa with someone who was not Rinoa. He didn't have to explain what he felt for her to someone else. "Look, you didn't know, so no harm no foul. But now I have to go find Quistis."

He didn't wait for a response from Fujin, only turned away and walked back to the hotel room.

* * *

"The _fuck_ is wrong with you?" Quistis hissed when Squall finally found her by the tour bus.

"It's not what you think," he told her lowly.

Quistis lit a cigarette and blew a long and angry stream of smoke at him. "Oh yeah?" she snapped. "En-fuckin-lighten me."

"_She_ kissed _me_," he snarled. "She's having issues with her mom, we talked, she wanted comfort and didn't know that I was the wrong person to get it from." He pulled out his cigarettes. "There is nothing going on."

Quistis quietly puffed on her cigarette but continued to glare at Squall through narrowed eyes. "Mmm hmmm," she murmured. "And did you tell Fujin _why_ you are the wrong person to get comfort from?"

Squall smirked. "She thought there was something between you and I by way of your reaction."

"Ugh, as if."

"Thanks. No, I told her that there was someone."

"Ugh! But you didn't tell her _who?_"

Squall growled and made a fist. "It's not her business _who_ that someone is. Fujin knows that there is someone in my life that I want and that it is not _her. _That's what is important. I don't have to explain myself to her. I'm explaining myself to _you_ because you know very well that it is _Rinoa_ that I want."

Quistis kept the scowl on her face but her eyes lost their menacing glare. "Good. Because I was really hoping you weren't going to make me regret sending her a picture I took of you guys."

"Wait, what?"

The scowl melted into a playful grin and she produced to picture of Rinoa and Squall in the bed.

Squall sighed and rubbed the scar between his eyes. "That's what that light was," he muttered, thinking back to the bright light that had awakened him that night. "I thought it was just your drunk ass using the phone's light to maneuver through the mess of a hotel room."

"Don't be mad. It's a cute picture."

"Yes, it is," he agreed. After a moment he nodded his chin at her. "Send it to me."

Quistis dropped open her mouth a breath. "Really?"

"Yes."

With a giddy smile on her lips she quickly tapped her thumbs over the screen to open a new message to Squall. "You are head over heels for her that bad, huh?"

He nodded slowly, exhaling smoke through his lips. "You have no idea."

Quistis pressed _send_ and tucked the phone back into her pocket. "You going to tell Rinoa about this?"

"Is it necessary?" he asked, honestly curious as to whether or not he should.

Quistis shrugged. "I mean…true, there's _nothing_ going on between you and Fujin and technically you and Rinoa are not in a serious or exclusive relationship—just from what information I've gotten from you—but I mean, yeah, maybe you should? But I'll leave that up to your discretion." She lowered her eyes towards Squall's pocket when she heard it chime with notification of a new message. "Anyways, I'll try and do damage control."

"Yeah." He reached for his phone and stepped aside to let Quistis pass by. "Tell fuckin' Hans to delete the photo," he called to her over his shoulder.

"Will do," she said back with a wave of her hand.

Squall scoffed and shook his head as he thought about Hans and his damn cell phone. That bastard always loved to take pictures. He never meant any harm by doing so, he did it mostly out of his own amusement. Knowing Hans, he'd forget he even had the picture before his first cup of coffee the next morning.

He looked at the picture of him and Rinoa, a smile curving into his lips as he thought about how she molded against him in an embrace. She slept so soundly, the soft and rhythmic sounds of her breathing like a lullabye to him.

His thoughts were broken when the door to the tour bus opened up and Irvine suddenly filled the frame. The cowboy's eyes widened for a moment when they locked onto Squall and he glanced behind him. "Hey," he said quietly.

"Hey," Squall said back, frowning. "I didn't know you were in there."

"Yeah…um." Irvine turned his head to look back into the bus and suddenly Squall saw another face. This one was of a woman around their age, her brown hair tied back in a bun that was messy and disheveled, and her lips had the same pink shade that Squall now saw was smeared along Irvine's face.

The woman bashfully squeezed her way past Irvine and the two had a very awkward farewell that was made up of soft and short utterances of words. She hardly even lifted her eyes to Squall and then she was gone.

Squall didn't even watch which direction she left in. Instead he placed a hand on Irvine's chest and shoved him back into the bus. With his blood boiling, he slammed the door behind him and knocked Irvine onto the couch so hard that the cowboy saw stars.


	28. Chapter 28

"What the _fuck_ is wrong with you?" Squall snarled, echoing Quistis's earlier fury. He stood above the other man, fists still clenched. His steely blue eyes smoldered and he could feel the cords in his throat tense and jerk as he fought for control.

Irvine rubbed his jaw that had roughly met Squall's fist. "Fuck…" he muttered, his eyes watering, but Squall knew that it was not because he was in pain. "I fucked up."

"That part is obvious." Squall spoke through gritted teeth and watched as Irvine slowly managed to pull himself into a sitting position. "The fuck were you thinking? What about Selphie? Who the _fuck _was that?"

"I fucked up," Irvine said again, his gaze not even aimed at Squall. His eyes were large and hollow, distant and distraught, as if he were in the midst of the realization of what he had done. "Fuckin' shit…I fucked up."

"Outside," Squall ordered. "_Now._"

When Irvine didn't move as quickly as Squall liked, the cowboy was yanked to his feet and dragged outside, where he was then slammed against the side of the bus. "Ok! Stop hitting me!" Irvine cried, desperately trying to keep Squall at arm's length.

Squall pulled away and immediately grabbed his cigarettes. He sucked in a deep breath to calm himself down and then lit up. He and Irvine had exchanged blows before in the past, but for the life of them they couldn't remember what it was over. They both chalked it up to the fact that they were drunk, Irvine was probably getting mouthy, and the rest was history.

"I've no valid excuse," Irvine said, his voice low as he ran shaking fingers through his hair to loosen the ponytail. "We were all at the billiard and we all got challenged by another table. She was part of that table…we got to talking and drinking…and…" Irvine let out a breath that sounded to Squall like it was dripping with disgust.

"You fuck her?"

A scowl curved into Irvine's face and Squall could see the disgust now. The shame and self-loathing twisted in his features and his eyes began to water again. "No," he whispered. "But I _wanted_ to. She reminded me of Selphie."

Squall frowned a bit. He didn't take much notice of the girl, only noticed that she was a brunette. "Alright," was all he said.

"She's a kindergartner teacher, bubbly, hyper…" Irvine made another grimace. "I think I even called her Selphie."

"Are you still drunk?"

"Very," Irvine said with a sardonic laugh. "I don't think she even noticed I said it…" He shook his head and rubbed his palm against his eye. "When I heard voices outside I…it's like I realized what was happening."

"You're a fucking idiot." Squall exhaled the smoke through his teeth and turned his head towards the hotel. "Just the other night you were telling me that you had no intention of throwing away you're relationship and here you are shacking up with some broad because she 'reminds' you of Selphie?"

"I know," Irvine muttered, his complexion suddenly turning waxy and pale. "I'm shit. I'm lower than shit."

Though Squall couldn't agree more, he could see that Irvine was beating himself up over it more than Squall's wrath ever could. For the moment, it seemed that the conversation had run its course. "You look like you're gonna hurl."

Irvine slowly swallowed and made a repulsed expression. "I think I am."

"Do it in the hotel room, then," Squall said. "I finally got the smell of vomit out of the bus." He reached forward and gripped Irvine around the back of his shirt collar and led him back towards the building.

When they reached the hotel room Squall saw that Quistis was laying across Hans, reaching for his phone.

"No, seriously, you can't post that," she said.

"What? Why not? You can't tell that it's Fujin!" he laughed, managing to keep the phone away from her flailing hand.

"But you can tell that it's _Squall_!" she protested. "He's looking right at the damn camera!"

Hans lifted his head and saw Squall staring at them, his jaw set and his fists looking like they were ready for another swing. He looked back and forth between Squall and Quistis. "Oh…something here I'm missing?"

Irvine made a gagging noise deep in his throat and shoved Squall out of the way. "You and me both, brother," he managed to utter out before making a stumbling dash for the bathroom.

"Hurry up and get it all out of your system. We have a show tomorrow night and we can't have you puking all over the crowd." Squall sighed and ran his fingers through his hair. "How much did that shithead have to drink?"

"A lot," Hans answered. "More than I've ever seen him drink before." He waved his phone in the air. "Now, why can't I post this picture? It's harmless, right? I mean, yeah, Fujin's got her arms wrapped around your neck but you can't tell you were making out…" When Squall didn't respond, Hans's eyebrows raised into his forehead. "Ah…you've got someone back home, don't you?"

Quistis glanced at Squall over her shoulder and made an apologetic face.

"Kind of," Squall said. "Yeah."

"Got it," Hans said, looking back to the screen and hitting the button 'discard post.' "Sorry man, didn't know." Then his lips twisted in thought and he gave Squall a scrutinizing look.

"No one knows," Squall said. "We haven't made anything official between us, but if she gets the slightest inclination that I could be fucking around my chances with her could drop."

Hans nodded and put his phone away. "Yeah, I don't want to deal with the wrath of a Leonhart if I ruin his chances with someone he's got his eye on."

"Thank you." Squall was about to turn away but then paused, shooting a heated glare to Hans. "And we were _not_ making out."

* * *

**Sunday night**

"How'd your show go last night?" Rinoa asked, speaking over her shoulder as she scooped some ice cream out of the carton. "Did you play at another theatre?"

Squall shook his head and blew out a stream of smoke. He and Rinoa were video-chatting again, but this time he had to use his cell phone. At the moment, he and Quistis were shacked up in the smoking room they had booked and he had his phone plugged in and leaning against wall while standing upright on the desk.

"Not like a theatre with seats only. It's kinda like Tonberry's down in West Galbadia—there's the main floor with the stage and areas you can sit surrounding the main floor, and then there's an upstairs that offers tables and a bar."

"Ooh, that sounds nice." Rinoa polished her bowl of ice cream with a quick spurt of canned whipped cream and turned back around to face the laptop she'd had set up on her kitchen counter. She was about to spoon some ice cream into her mouth when she broke into laughter. Quistis was standing behind Squall with her arms up overhead and dancing like a monkey. "That's a good look for you!" giggled Rinoa. "You should do it on stage at your next show."

Quistis chuckled and reached over and mussed with Squall's hair. "Well, our next show is tomorrow night, I'll do it just for you and Selphie! I'm sure someone will take a video of it and post it online."

Rinoa laughed and watched as Quistis continued to mess with Squall's hair as she spoke, all the while his expression was completely stoic and unmoving. "Well, we'll have to check for any videos the day after. Since it's Selphie's birthday tomorrow, I'm taking her out!"

"Tell her that me dancing and looking like an ass on stage is my birthday present for her!" cried Quistis.

Squall's expression changed then. His eyes widened a fraction and his lips tightened. "Shit," he whispered. "I forgot that tomorrow's her birthday."

"Well, it's not your job to have her birthday memorized—that belongs to Irvine," Rinoa said with a shrug.

Again, Squall made an expression that Rinoa couldn't quite place, but she reasoned it up to the fact that Quistis was now playing with his ears. "What do you guys plan to do?" he asked.

Rinoa shrugged her shoulders and spooned some more ice cream into her mouth. "No idea," she admitted. "We might go to Moogle World, I think she mentioned she had season passes."

"That'd be fun," Squall agreed. "You should do that. Make sure she has a blast."

"That's the plan! Hey, when you guys get back we should all go together!" Rinoa clapped her hands together and Quistis did a little excited dance.

"I whole-heartedly agree with that idea," the blonde announced. "I can't remember the last time I went to Moogle World." Suddenly her mouth opened into an excited howl. "We have to all get those matching Moogle ears. You know? With those cute fluffy ears and the pom pom?"

Rinoa giggled, trying to imagine Squall sporting a headband where a poofy red pom pom dangled from a wiry antennae. "Oh, please, _please_ make that happen!" she squealed, laughing even more when Squall's expression shifted to near horrified.

"_No._"

The two girls burst out into fits of laughter.

"I'm sure Rinoa would make it worth your while…" Quistis sang, giving Squall's cheek a quick little pinch. Sending a wink through the camera, she waved Rinoa off and headed towards the door. "I'm gonna grab something from the diner next door, you want anything?"

"Uh…maybe just a burger," Squall said. "Not that hungry."

"You got it. See you later, Rinoa!"

"Bye!"

When they were alone, Rinoa had finished her ice cream and placed her dishes into the sink. She picked up her laptop and moved the conversation into her room, setting the laptop on her comforter so she could lay on her stomach. "So…Mr. Leonhart," she asked, flashing a smile as she tried to mimic a reporter. "Your very first tour is coming to an end, how do you feel?"

Squall smirked and leaned back against the chair, the cigarette dangling from his lips as he spoke. "I feel good," he answered. "It feels good being on tour and playing music. Never thought it would come this far but…fuck, it just feels right."

Rinoa grinned, absolutely in awe with how happy Squall looked, even if he kept his features muted. Even though his movements and body language weren't as animated as Quistis's, Rinoa could see the excitement in his eyes and could hear the smile in his voice. "You are so cute," she murmured. "So in love with your passion…and you're making it work!"

"I'm just honored to be playing music for those who actually want to hear it," Squall chuckled.

"If someone didn't want to hear the music you play I would question their sanity," Rinoa said.

* * *

**July 16****th****, Monday night**

After the show, Squall was leaning against the van. He and one of the tour staff had just finished loading up his drum kit. "Thanks," he said to the staff member who was signaling that he was heading back in to grab some more equipment.

Irvine approached the van with one of Zell's amps in his arms. "Good show," he said.

Squall nodded. "Yeah," he concurred. "The crowd was really energetic tonight. I think they especially liked Quistis's dance."

Irvine chuckled. "Yeah…that was fucking random."

"Quistis says that it was her birthday present for Selphie."

Irvine's face suddenly fell, He loaded the amp into the van and carefully slid it further in to make room for more. "She's texting me when she gets home from Moogle World with Rinoa," he said lowly. "I'm calling her after that." He swallowed and lifted his gaze to meet Squall's. "And telling her everything."

Squall grimaced. "On her birthday? Really?"

Irvine mirrored Squall's distaste for the timing but he shrugged and untied his ponytail, dragging his fingers through his coppery hair. "I've put it off long enough, haven't I? I can't keep lying to her like this." He pulled out his phone and scrolled through his messages to pull up a photo that Selphie had sent him. "She had Rinoa buy her one of those Ms. Moogle's Cakes."

Squall leaned over and looked at the picture. It was a close up of a mini cake completely covered with fruit on the top and smothered in fluffy cream. Behind the cake, all that could be seen of Selphie was her wide and open mouth, ready to go in for the kill.

"What exactly are you going to tell her?"

"The truth. I love her, I will always love her. I fucked up, got drunk, and almost fucked a girl I met in a bar because I was so scared and overwhelmed with the thought that our relationship was failing."

No one else in the band knew the whole story about what was going on between the couple. Sure, Quistis and Zell had the feeling that there was trouble brewing in paradise, but they didn't know about Irvine's indiscretion. After all, Squall was not one to gossip about matters that did not pertain to him. He gave Irvine the benefit of the doubt and trusted that he himself would come clean—to Selphie—when the time was right. Though he didn't particularly agree with Irvine in telling her on her _birthday_, he couldn't argue with the fact that the cowboy had to tell her sooner rather than later.

"Think you guys will be able to work past this?" he asked.

Irvine was quiet for a moment, his throat working as he chewed on his lip and inside of his cheek. "I don't know," he whispered finally. "I really don't. I'm going to beg for forgiveness, make promises that I fully intend to keep, but…" He held up his hands. "I don't know if it'll be enough for her. Fuck, I don't know if it'd even be enough for _me_ if the roles were reversed."

His phone vibrated and he swallowed when he saw that it was Selphie texting him saying that she had just gotten home. "She's home already," he said, his voice cracking.

"Djin Theory should be going on soon," Squall said, looking at the time on his phone. "So their bus should be empty. Go use that."

"But the rest of our equipment…"

Squall shook his head and snapped his fingers, pointing in the direction of Djin Theory's tour bus. "This is more important. Go handle your shit. I've got this."

* * *

**The next night.**

Rinoa looked down at the woman whose head was nestled in her lap. When Selphie came knocking on her door a little after nine o' clock, she knew that something wasn't right. Just by the sound of the knock alone Rinoa knew something was wrong. Selphie's knock was usually a quick little rat-a-tat-tat but this time…it was slow and quiet. A wave of dread washed over Rinoa when she opened the door and found the brunette with raw eyes and still in her pajamas.

Now, it was close to midnight, Selphie had stopped bawling but the skin beneath her eyes was still moistened with tears that still managed to seep out.

Rinoa was shocked when Selphie told her about the phone call with Irvine. Her heart bled for the girl. Though Rinoa didn't have much experience when it came to long-distance relationships (or _long-term_ relationships, for that matter), she did understand the animosity that brewed within them. Going from seeing a person you care so much about nearly every day to hardly ever at all…something was bound to happen. It was terrible, so unfortunate, but it was one of those things that tended to occur.

Even still, she was angry at Irvine for making her friend cry, for breaking her heart, but she couldn't bring herself to hate the cowboy. He was human, after all, and humans have needs. Though he swore up and down from Heaven to Hell that he did not have sex with this unnamed woman, he did admit that he _wanted_ to. Rinoa wasn't entirely sure she believed Irvine on that but Selphie seemed to. However, now she couldn't trust him.

"I knew that the distance was becoming a problem," Selphie had whispered. "But I didn't think that it was that severe…"

She told Rinoa that their talk went on for hours, well into the night to the point where she thought her phone would catch on fire from its prolonged usage.

It was decided that the two would go their separate ways, but Irvine begged to see Selphie when he returned to Galbadia. Selphie said that she didn't want to see him…that she _couldn't_ see him, but deep down she knew that she wanted to see him more than anything. In the end, pride won and she let him go, telling him to live his dream.

"_I'm not about to live on a tour bus. Living your dream would require you to leave often for long periods of time and I'm not going to get in the way of your dream because I can't trust you when you're not right beside me. Maybe later on down the road I could live with it, but right now? I can't. I just can't_," she had told him.

"I feel like an idiot," Selphie said to Rinoa.

"Why?"

"Because I love him and I _do_ feel like we could make this work but…I just can't bring myself to say yes."

Rinoa ran her fingers through Selphie's hair and gently massaged her scalp. "Honestly? I think you guys need to sit down face to face and talk about it." When Selphie started to protest, Rinoa gave the brunette's ear a quick tug. "No. Seriously. When he gets back into town you guys need to have a serious talk. I understand that _right now_ the last thing you want to do is see him—because you probably want to knee him right in the balls, and hey, I don't blame you—but seriously, be grown up about it. He made a mistake, a _huge_ mistake! But he's owning up to it and wants to be with you because he loves you. I understand if you can never forgive him but…still, I think you guys need to really take a step back for now and then have a long talk when he gets back."

Selphie groaned and rolled over so she was looking upright at Rinoa. "You think so?" she asked quietly. "Is that what you'd do?"

"Me? No. You know me, I'd set fire to his pubes and send Caraway on him." When Selphie cracked a smile and rolled her eyes, Rinoa grinned and wrapped her arms around her. "But I'm _terrible_ with relationships! I honestly can't remember the last time I had a serious boyfriend." She made a face as she thought for a moment. "Or if I've even had someone to _call_ a serious boyfriend. Every single one of them was just some guy I was 'seeing' for a few months or so. I didn't have what you and Irvine have."

"I don't know if I can do it," Selphie murmured. "I know how I get. I know that even though I have no intention to go on the road with him, I won't be able to trust him when he's out of town. And he _has_ to go out of town if he's going to be in a successful band! I can't get in the way of that. I think it's just better this way."

Rinoa leaned in and gave a kiss to Selphie's forehead. "If that's how you really feel," she whispered. "I am behind you, one hundred percent."

* * *

The next morning Selphie left fairly early, wanting to go to the gym to keep her mind occupied before having to go to work. Rinoa texted Squall good morning, knowing that he'd be awake since he was three hours ahead.

_S.L: You're up early._

_R.H: Selphie just left._

_S.L: Ah._

_R.H: Yeah._

They decided to continue their conversation on video-chat through their phones. Rinoa liked that even though they didn't talk often or on a daily schedule, Squall was very open to the suggestion of video-chat. She had also noticed that he definitely became more enthusiastic about using the feature on his phone after their first session where she was wearing her new corset.

Rinoa rested her phone against the side of one of her speakers and she sat down in her computer chair. "Crazy, huh?" she murmured, thinking about Irvine and Selphie. She still couldn't believe it and even though she was disgusted by Irvine's actions, she still had a job to do. She clicked opened a few folders and skimmed through the photographs of Absolute Lore she had planned to edit for her portfolio today.

"Yeah. Irvine's a fucking idiot," Squall said, leaning to the side and grabbing his coffee.

Rinoa nodded and absently started browsing the internet, seeing what she had already uploaded of Absolute Lore. She came across an amazing shot of Irvine, one hand on his mic stand, holding it at arm's length from his body, his face turned away so that his studly profile was the focus of the shot. Rinoa chuckled when she reread his comment: _Only you would make a shot of only half my face look so damn good. Pure talent, this woman has it!_

She smiled faintly. Even if he was a cheater, he still was a sweetheart.

"How long is the drive to your next show?" Rinoa asked Squall.

Squall let out a soft groan as he cracked his neck. "Not too far. We'll probably shove off later today and spend tomorrow in town. We haven't figured out what we're doing yet."

Rinoa nodded as she listened to Squall talk about the road trip towards Esthar that was coming up. She clicked on Irvine's profile and inattentively perused his tagged photos. She saw a few from previous shows, pictures taken by some of the tour staff and other band members. One of them was of him and Quistis, posed in front of a well-known statue in front of a busy metro-link. Quistis looked as if she were intently studying the sculpture, her fingers poised and pinching her chin as if she were deep in thought. Irvine, on the other hand, appeared to be in the middle of a very extravagant dance move.

Then she saw a recently added photo, this one added the other night, the fourteenth, and it was tagged by Hans. It looked to be taken right after their show on Saturday, a noticeable sheen of sweat was still visible against Hans's skin. His arm was wrapped around Irvine's shoulders, and the cowboy was looking into the camera with the faintest smile that Rinoa had ever seen him display. To Hans's left was Squall, who was simply giving his infamous glare towards the camera.

"What's wrong?" Squall asked.

"Huh?"

"You're frowning at something."

"Oh." Rinoa glanced back towards her phone and sent Squall a smile. "I was just looking at this picture of you and Irvine that Hans put up the other night…" She squinted as she stared harder at the photo. "Is…is that a bruise on Irvine's face?" She tapped her chin to mirror the position of the marking she saw on Irvine.

Squall ran his tongue over his teeth. "Yep."

"Did he get in a fight?"

"No."

Rinoa's brows furrowed even further as she tried to understand. She turned and saw Squall inspecting the knuckles of his right hand. "Wait…_you_ punched Irvine?"

He didn't say anything, only sighed and brought his coffee thermos to his lips.

Realization dawned on her when she looked at the date of the photograph. "You knew," Rinoa whispered.

It wasn't a question.

Squall swallowed the rest of his coffee and set the thermos onto the ground. "Yeah," he said. "I knew."

Rinoa pressed her lips together and exhaled through her nose, hurt by his admission. The date showed that he knew what Irvine had done, had known even when they had spoken the day before Selphie's birthday. "Why didn't you tell me?" she breathed.

He simply stared at her through the screen, his blue eyes steely and cold. His jaw was set, not tightly, but grim enough where Rinoa could tell that he thought that she would either know his answer already or he just didn't have one for her.

"It's not really your business, is it?" he finally said.

Rinoa scoffed, perturbed by the terse comment. "Excuse you?"

"Irvine fucked up. The first person who should have been alerted of it is Selphie, not you; and the person she should have heard it from first is Irvine. Again, not you. If I had told you then you would have immediately said something to Selphie."

While she easily followed his logic, she didn't appreciate the attitude within his words. She watched as Squall pulled out a cigarette and lit up, his head turning as he glanced around his surroundings. "How do _you _know, then?" Rinoa asked.

Squall exhaled the smoke with an annoyed sigh. "I…interrupted them."

"Did they…?"

"No," Squall said firmly. "Not that it makes the situation any better, but…no, they didn't."

Rinoa heard a knock and watched Squall get up from his seat and head towards the door to his hotel room. She heard a brief, muffled conversation, and soon Squall returned with Zell behind him.

"Hey Rinoa!" the blonde said, leaning in so that his face filled her phone's screen.

"Hi!" she laughed. "How's it going?"

Zell shrugged and kept the beaming smile on his face. "It's been crazy, can't believe the tour is almost over!"

"We'll have to throw a welcome home party when you guys get back. You guys come back on a what...Tuesday?" She ran her finger over the miniature calendar on her desk until she landed on the day they'd be back. "You said three day drive, right?"

"Something like that," Squall called.

"You leave Esthar on Saturday so…ok you'd be back on a Wednesday. We can figure something out for that Friday?" Rinoa proposed.

Zell nodded and stepped aside so Squall could lean in.

"Sounds good. Hey, so we're gonna start packing up."

"Ok." Rinoa blew Squall a kiss and waved goodbye to Zell. "Drive safe guys."

"Always. I'll talk to you later, Rinoa."

"Bye." Rinoa lightly tapped the 'end call' button and watched as Squall's face faded from the screen, only to be replaced with a photograph of a cartoon T-rex looking forlornly at his drum kit. Beneath the cartoon read the caption: _Worst drummer ever._

Suddenly, her computer chimed with a notification that she received a new e-mail directed to her business account. Rinoa set the phone aside and clicked on the icon. Her eyes widened when she saw the name of the sender.

* * *

Later that day Rinoa met up with Selphie at the art studio where she worked. "Knock, knock," Rinoa called, poking her head into the studio. "How's it going?"

"Hey you!" Selphie smiled, still sitting at one of the pottery wheels. "Come on in. Wanna learn how to shape a vase?"

Rinoa laughed and walked over, her nose crinkling as she watched Selphie's nimble hands plop down a slab of clay onto the stationary plate. "Yeesh, I dunno. I took ceramics back in high school…the wheel was not my friend. I was more so talented in the pinch pot area."

Selphie grinned and gently pressed her foot onto the pedal, setting the wheel plate into motion.

"You'll lock up won't you, Selphie?"

She turned and nodded her head to the older woman who was packing up her messenger bag. "Will do, thanks for letting me stay later, Regina."

"Anytime kiddo, have a good night!"

"I um…got an e-mail from Fujin," said Rinoa when they were alone.

Selphie glanced up from her pottery wheel, her hands still carefully molding the clay. "Oh yeah? How's she doing?"

Rinoa shrugged. "Don't know. She was mostly talking business."

"Business?"

"Yeah, remember how she said she wanted to talk to their producer to hire me?"

"Oh!" Selphie nodded and turned her eyes back to the clay in her hands. "Right…she wanted to see if they could get you hired to photograph the tour? Or…what's left of it anyway." She made a face as she thought. "Don't they only have like…two shows left? Or is it three?"

"Three. The twentieth, the twenty-fourth, and the last is the twenty-seventh."

"Right." She clenched her jaw and gently glided her palms over the clay, shaping it into a round and wide bowl. "So? Did you get hired?"

Rinoa sighed and sat back. "That's the thing. There's not enough in their budget to hire two photographers like they originally wanted—so it'd just be me—and they can only afford me to photograph one night…which wouldn't be a problem except…"

Selphie stole a quick look. Her bowl was now shaping into the curving bottom of a vase. "Except what?"

"They can't afford the expense of a plane ticket _and_ a hotel room. Personally, the hotel room part doesn't concern me…" _Because I'd most likely find some way to sneak into Squall's van or bus or room or whatever he's sleeping in that night, _she thought to herself. "…but I just looked at a last minute flight from Deling to Esthar to get me there the last two nights of the tour and good lord!" Her brows rose up to nearly meet her hairline and her brown eyes widened. "The prices fucking _skyrocketed._ It's inhumane! It's hardly even worth it at this point. What I'd pay to get out there and what I'd be getting paid…I'd just about break even! And that's not even including food!"

As Selphie listened to Rinoa speak, she took her foot off of the pedal. The spinning wheel stopped and Selphie's vase became a lopsided, wavy, hunk of clay. She let out a snort of a giggle at the sight and looked over to Rinoa. "Maybe I'll just make an ashtray," she laughed.

Rinoa covered her mouth and chuckled at the sight. "It will be the most beautiful ashtray," she said. "Sorry, did I break your concentration?"

"Oh, not at all! But as you were talking it got me to thinking." Selphie stood to her feet and scooped up a nearby rag, cleaning off her hands. "I bought this as a birthday present for myself," she said, her voice softening. "And…well, since I won't be getting any use of it…" She reached into her totebag and pulled out a single sheet of paper. "Here."

Frowning, Rinoa took the paper from Selphie. As her eyes scanned over the words, her jaw tightened and she swallowed. "Oh, Selphie," she whispered. In her hands she held an itinerary for a flight scheduled to leave for Esthar on the twenty-fifth and returning on the twenty-eighth as well as a three night stay at one of the hotels. Rinoa looked over to Selphie, who was crossing her arms over her breasts and trying to casually shrug. "You ok?"

The petite brunette chewed on her lips for a moment, her eyes downcast towards the floor. "I was gonna surprise him," she whispered. "When he called the other day and was like, 'I need to tell you something' I said, 'Oh! I need to tell you something too, but you go first!'"

"Sweetie, I…I can't take this." Rinoa held out the paper for Selphie to take back, but the tiny brunette just shook her head and backed away.

"No, no." Selphie took a deep breath and kept her arms crossed. "Please, take it. It'd only go to waste and there's no point in attempting to get a refund now. It was one of those package deals."

Rinoa looked at the paper dangling between her fingers. "At least let me pay for it."

"No."

"It was your birthday present!" Rinoa protested.

Selphie scrunched her face, puffing up her cheeks like an adorable and annoyed puffer fish. "Ok…so how about for my birthday present _someone _get some use out of my birthday present! Come on, Rinoa…please? Take the damn tickets, take the job, and get your little butt to Esthar!"

Even though Rinoa was practically dancing with excitement on the inside, she was still quite hesitant to jump at the chance. "Are you sure? I mean…you took the time off right? You could still go? Maybe smack Irvine upside the head a little?"

Selphie broke into a giggle. "You can do that for me. I did take the time off but I already told Regina to cancel it. I'm already scheduled and booked for work. So, like I said, the tickets will go to waste—_someone_ has to use them! It might as well be _you._"

"Selphie…"

"Stop!" she cried, nearing the brink of hysteric laughter. "You are going to Esthar, young lady!" she ordered, pointing a very determined finger at Rinoa.

"I'm older than you!"

"And your point is? You are taking this job! You are taking these tickets…" She emphasized her words by marching up to Rinoa, snatching the itinerary from her grasp and neatly folding it to nestle in Rinoa's purse. "…you are going to Esthar to photograph the last show of this _amazing_ tour. And…you are going to fuck Squall."

Rinoa's head snapped up, her eyes nearly bulging from her sockets. "Um. What?"

"In fact, I'm going to text him and _demand_ that he stay in the hotel with you," Selphie continued, walking back to her pottery wheel and completely ignoring the dumbfounded expression on Rinoa's face. "Ooh! You want me to text him and tell him to stack up on condoms? I'm sure he doesn't have any since you're not there."

"Wait. What?"

"Hey!" Selphie spun on her heels and excitedly clapped her hands together. "Forget the ashtray—let's go shopping for some sexy lingerie!"

Before Rinoa knew it, she was being dragged into Selphie's yellow bug and the two were heading off towards the large and prestigious shopping outlet of Deling. Rinoa couldn't help but stare lovingly at Selphie as she drove and chatted on about whether Rinoa should wear crotchless panties or do the whole 'trenchcoat and nothing underneath' schtick.

Here was a woman who had just had her heart torn in two, and now she was doing everything she could within her power to make sure that her friend was on her way to a prosperous job as well as the handsome drummer she'd had set her sights on.

Rinoa quietly smiled to herself as she listened to Selphie continue on. She was going to Esthar. She was going to Esthar to photograph the end of a brilliant tour and work with such talented musicians. All thanks to this spunky, energetic little fireball sitting beside her.

"Selphie?"

Selphie paused and glanced over to Rinoa. "Yeah?"

"I fucking love you."

Selphie grinned widely and gave Rinoa an endearing squeeze to the knee. "I love you too."

Rinoa was going to Esthar. And she was going to smack that damn cowboy so hard upside his head.

_And fuck Squall,_ she thought to herself. _Definitely fuck Squall._

* * *

**A/N: Hello my readers! Can I just say that your reviews literally made me laugh and squeal out loud? And I'm an asshole for eliciting such strong emotions from you guys! Haha! **

**Thank you again for all the reviews, they really make my day!**

**xoxoxox**


	29. Chapter 29

**A/N: Hello my loves! We just passed the one year anniversary of TBIWM last Saturday! Ah! I also broke over 10,400 views over the weekend as well, so yay! Thank you for reading and thank you to those who have taken the time to leave reviews and put this story on your alert/favorite's list over the past year! Means a lot to me! xoxoxox**

* * *

**The next day. July 19**

"Should we order?" Quistis asked. "They're not here yet."

Irvine shrugged and looked over the menu one last time. "Hans texted me and said that they weren't too far away. I'm sure we can order right now. Anyways, look at Zell—he looks like he's about to chew his own arm off if he doesn't get any food soon."

At the comment, Zell whipped his head around and gave Irvine a glare. "Don't start with me," he said. "I didn't have much of a breakfast today."

"True, he only had half a bagel," Quistis added.

"Half?"

Quistis nodded at Irvine. "I ate the other half."

Squall grinned silently as he watched the other band members converse amongst themselves about what to order for their dinner. They had been on the road practically all day and now they were finally able to stop at a decent looking diner. Odin's Blade's bus had already gone on ahead since they bought microwavable food at their last rest stop and the members of Doomtrain were in the mood for Thai food instead.

His run in with Fujin after the incident was awkward for about five minutes. She apologized again, profusely, to which Squall repeated that since she had no idea that he had no reason to be upset with her and that they should just move on.

"Good idea," she had said with a smile. "We'll just forget it ever happened. And it won't happen again, I promise." She gave Squall a quick little jab to the shoulder and turned away, waving her arm behind her. "I just hope she knows how lucky she is!"

Squall glanced over to Irvine, watching his movements and seeing the brave face he put up. There were deep shadows beneath the cowboy's eyes but he said that they were the result of the long drive. Squall knew very well though that they were present because Irvine wasn't getting much sleep. Several times Squall caught him staring at the screen of his phone, his thumb just hovering over the call button but never pressing.

The ringing from his pocket interrupted Squall from his thoughts. "Hey," he said into the phone.

"Hi," Rinoa chirped back. "Guess what?"

Squall smirked at the enthusiasm laced in Rinoa's voice. He could picture her wide grin and her beautiful dark eyes sparkling with excitement. "What's up, angel?" he asked, pushing away Zell's face that was leaning closer in an attempt to hear the conversation.

Rinoa inwardly squealed at his nickname for her. "I'm coming to Esthar," she said.

"What? Really?"

Zell paused in his invasion of Squall's personal space and eagerly watched Squall rise up from his seat and roam away from their table at the diner. "_Angel_?" he whispered to Quistis and Irvine, who were also watching with wide eyes.

"They've got nicknames for each other?" she gasped, her eyes widening in excitement.

"When?" Squall asked as he walked outside.

"I'll be landing at the airport around seven-ish on the twenty-fifth."

"We should be getting into Esthar sometime that afternoon. Did you need someone to pick you up?"

"That would be ideal. I mean, I can get a cab if need be since it's not like you have a car," Rinoa said.

"I could always take the van, I doubt you'll be bringing too much luggage. Are you staying at a hotel?"

Rinoa told him the hotel she was staying at and he grinned. "That's actually not too far from the venue. So, what made you decide to come to Esthar so suddenly?"

"I got hired by Djin Theory's producer and the tour manager to photograph the last show of the tour!" Rinoa said excitedly.

"Really? I was wondering if that was actually going to happen."

"Hey Squall!"

He lifted his gaze and saw Hans and Royce approaching him. "Hey."

"Oh! Sorry, didn't see you were on the phone. We'll see you inside." Royce lightly patted Squall's shoulder and brushed past him to get to the door.

Esteban came up next, followed by Fujin and Ward. "Did you guys order already?" Esteban asked.

"We were just about to," said Squall. "Hey, Rinoa, we're gonna eat so I'll talk to you later."

"Rinoa?" Fujin squeaked. "Yay! Did she tell you the news?"

"Just did."

Fujin squealed and clapped her hands together. "Wonderful! Tell her that I'm so excited to be working with her!"

Rinoa laughed on the other side. "Tell her I'm excited to work with her too! It's going to be great."

"It sure will be," Squall agreed, holding the door open so the others could pass through. "Send me a copy of your itinerary."

"Will do!"

* * *

Rinoa hung up and tossed her phone onto the couch. "Are you sure?" she asked, turning to Selphie who was pouring some dressing onto the pasta salad she was currently making. "I mean…I just think that it really should be you going to Esthar—like you planned—and talk to Irvine."

Selphie sighed and capped the dressing. "I know sweetie," she said, setting the dressing bottle back into the cabinet and then searching through her drawers for a spoon. "And I agree that Irvine and I need to talk in person rather than over the phone but…I can't right now. It's too soon." As she stirred the pasta she glanced up and frowned at the judgmental glare that Rinoa was sending her. "What?" she laughed. "I _am_ going to talk to him. I'm gonna call him later today and see if he can set some time aside to meet with me when they get back into town." She scooped a spoonful of the pasta salad into her mouth. "God!" she groaned. "I can't stop eating this! Ugh, I make such damned good pasta salad."

"I can't say that I'm _entirely_ happy with that decision."

"Rinoa, you already accepted the job!" Selphie cried, shaking the large wooden spoon at her.

"I know! But um…I hate flying alone! How about I see if Caraway can spot me for a ticket?"

Selphie's shoulders dropped and she shot a look at the other girl so heated that Rinoa backed into the corner of the couch.

"Kidding?"

"Rinoa, I _want_ to talk to Irvine but right now I think I should just be alone with my thoughts until he comes back to town. Plus, say if I did go to Esthar what if it doesn't work out? What the fuck would I do for three days? Lock myself up in the hotel room?" She finished stirring and scooped the pasta into two separate bowls. "Just…let me do that, ok? Just let me be alone and figure my shit out?"

Rinoa held out her hand when Selphie approached the couch and handed her a bowl. "Is that what you really want?"

"It is," Selphie nodded, heading back into the kitchen to grab forks. "And didn't you say that whatever I decided to do that you'd support me?"

Rinoa scrunched her lips into a scowl. "Yes," she grumbled.

"Then shut up!" Selphie cried, coming over to the couch and smacking Rinoa with the yellow ruffled throw pillow.

* * *

**Wednesday July 25****th**

Rinoa looped the bag's strap over her shoulder and continued to walk through the airport. She groaned and rubbed her cheek. Though her flight wasn't very long, the difference in the change of hours and the fact that the passenger beside her apparently had a snoring problem…she was _exhausted._

As she walked through the terminal she checked her messages. She had received one earlier from Squall saying that he was on his way.

_R.H: Hey, walking through the south end of the terminal._

_S.L: Outside. Had to park the van._

When Rinoa stepped through the automatic doors she immediately zeroed in on Squall—flanked by a teenage girl and a boy who appeared to be no more than ten with smiles aimed at a woman in front of them with a phone, presumably the pair's mother.

Rinoa softly chuckled to herself and kept her distance for a moment as she let the kids gush over the rock star.

"I wanna learn how to play the drums just like you!" said the boy. "My mom said that we could get me a kit!"

"An _electric_ drum kit," corrected the mother as she slid her phone back into her purse. She lifted her eyes to Squall and gave him a quick smile. "We live in a condo," she explained. "Come on kids, it's getting late."

Squall grinned and patted the boy on the shoulder. "Gotta start somewhere. Even though electric drum kits aren't the same thing, the movements are the same. Just quiet."

"That is the idea," said the teenage girl, looping an arm around her brother's shoulders. "Good luck on your show on Friday! Wish we could be there but we'll watch the live feed."

"Thank you, hope you enjoy the show." Squall waved them off and turned to see Rinoa grinning at him. "Hey," he said softly.

Rinoa giggled and approached him, running her hand through her hair. "Look at you!" she laughed. "God, I bet I won't be able to take you anywhere…what with your famous ass being recognized everywhere."

"Yeah, I'm pretty surprised they recognized me at all," Squall confessed. "Can't say that I'm seen much during the show."

"True. You are hidden behind your kit."

* * *

"Hi," Rinoa said to the concierge. "I have a reservation for a room?"

"Of course," said the man at the front desk. "Under what name?"

Rinoa pulled out her wallet. "Well, it's under a Selphie Tilmitt but we had to change the reservation at the last minute. She should have called about it?"

The man typed in the name and nodded. "Yes, she called the other day saying that the room would be used by a Rinoa Heartilly."

"That would be me!" She handed over her photo identification.

"Thank you." He continued to type for a moment. "Alright, I have you set up in the suite on level seven…and Ms. Tilmitt made a note here that the room would be under reservation for a Ms. Heartilly and…" He scrolled for a breath. "One guest."

Rinoa pressed her lips into a tight smile and stealthily nudged Squall's leg with her knee.

He cleared his throat and produced his ID. "And that would be me," he said.

The man nodded and typed the information into his computer. "Alright Ms. Heartilly and Mr. Leonhart, you are all set. If you have any other bags Jared will escort them up."

"Oh, not necessary," Rinoa smiled, lifting up her dufflebag. "We pack light."

"Here are your keys," the man said, sliding over two room keys. "Enjoy your stay and we have complementary breakfast in the lobby from seven to nine."

"Thank you," Squall and Rinoa said.

* * *

Rinoa set her camera bag onto the dresser while Squall placed her dufflebag at the foot of the bed. "Do they all know that you're staying here with me?" she asked him, watching him place his backpack onto ground.

Nonchalantly he shrugged. "No idea. Probably."

Rinoa chuckled and turned around to face him. "Do you guys even notice what the other is doing half the time?"

Another shrug. "I'm not their mother, I don't need to know exactly where they are every hour of the day. We check in with each other every night. As long as we all show up to the gig on time and coherent, we don't pry."

"Except when it comes to Irvine."

Squall sighed and ran his fingers through his hair. "Except when it comes to Irvine," he agreed. "He's a little nervous to see you, by the way. Excited, of course, because he likes you but…still nervous."

Rinoa laughed and crossed her arms over her breasts. "I'm not going to bite his head off. Selphie made me promise to behave." She twisted her lips briefly as if to suppress another laugh. "But…I will glare at him with the judgiest glare I can muster."

"I'm sure he expects that," he said.

She smiled and then pulled the loose t-shirt from her body, exposing the black satin corset she wore beneath.

Squall stilled. "Woah," he breathed, his eyes widening as he let his gaze drift over the accentuated pinch of her waist and the amount of cleavage supplied. "That is…holy shit…even better in person."

Rinoa smiled but gave him an awkward wince. "Sorry for the timing, what with the nature of our conversation but I…"

Squall gripped her chin within his fingers and pressed his lips to hers. "Yeah, terrible timing," he said. "God, I have missed you," he growled, shoving her down into the mattress.

Rinoa couldn't answer, could only moan in response as she wrapped her legs around his hips. She ran her tongue over his mouth and thrust her fingers into his hair. In the back of her mind she felt guilty, guilty because now she was about to fall into a bed that was originally made for another couple and she just didn't care. Then Squall's tongue touched hers and she stopped thinking.

Around the back of her neck came Squall's palm, his fingertips scratching so gently over her scalp while his pelvis roughly ground in between her legs. His other hand traced over the curve of her waist, trailing downwards to reach the hem of her pants.

She sat up and pulled his shirt over his head, trailing heated kisses across the inked surface of his chest. Her fingers greedily pressed into the hard flesh, roaming over his bare shoulders and bringing him closer to her.

"Now, this is beautiful," he murmured, his fingers lightly running over the satiny material of the corset. "But I think it's time for it to come off." His hands went to the top of the garment, pausing for a moment as he tried to deduce his next move. His fingers hesitated atop the lace and beading. "Wait…"

Rinoa chuckled and gently pushed his hands away. "They're hooks," she said as she started to sit up. "Similar to the hooks of a bra?" She flipped Squall onto his back and straddled his hips, her hands starting to unhook the top of the corset. "You know how to undo a lady's bra, don't you?" she teased.

Squall narrowed his eyes at her. "Yes, I do know. But this…" He ran a finger down the center of the corset that encased the hooks. "This is much longer than the back of a bra. Give me the benefit of the doubt here."

Rinoa giggled and leaned in to give him a deep kiss. "I don't doubt any of your skills, darling," she purred. "But I'll help you out with this, you know, just to get it started." She straightened back up and slowly undid each hook, her teeth seductively rolling over her bottom lip as she kept Squall's gaze. When his eyes lowered to watch her hands reveal each enticing inch of her flesh, she felt her heartbeat quicken with excitement.

When the clothes were removed, Squall traced his tongue over the indents in Rinoa's skin caused by the corset's boning. Rinoa moaned and gripped her nails into the bed sheets. As Squall's tongue ventured lower, a soft whine escaped her lips and she tightened her thighs around his head.

"Oh, fuck!" she cried, her hips rolling as Squall's fingers plunged into her, rocking her with a tantric rhythm.

He brought her over the edge of the bed, keeping her legs locked around his hips. He leaned forward and crashed his lips onto hers, sweeping his tongue into her mouth. "I've missed you," he grunted again.

Rinoa panted against him and wrapped her arms around his neck. "I missed you too," she whispered. He reached over and hastily rolled on a condom, sheathing himself into her with vigor. "God, I've missed you!" she screamed, capturing his mouth.

He slid in deeper, thrust harder, his steely eyes intensely watching her mouth drop open in a silent howl as she desperately held on. "Harder!" she demanded, practically digging her nails into his shoulders.

Squall, only happy to oblige, hooked his elbows beneath her knees, bending Rinoa's body so he could shove himself deeper into her. He watched with pleasure as Rinoa's cheeks flushed and her legs shook. She was so stunning pinned beneath him and completely immersed with throbbing ecstasy.

As she came with a shuddering gasp, her hair tangled and face red, he couldn't help but smile at the most beautiful sight he'd ever seen. He leaned forward and kissed her passionately, riding out the aftershocks of her orgasm.

Rinoa moved her legs so that they encircled Squall's waist. Her hands caressed his jaw, her teeth nibbling her bottom lip as he pulled his intoxicating lips away. As he continued thrusting they locked eyes together, panting and groaning in rhythm as he felt himself reach his climax.

He stayed inside her long after he had finished, his lips softly brushing over Rinoa's cheek. Nothing felt as wonderful as having her so intimately within his embrace. The silence surrounding them was sweet and comforting, the only noise was their soft breathing and steady heart beats.

"I am really grateful Djin Theory hired you," he said.

Rinoa chuckled and rolled them over the mattress so that she lay atop of him. "So am I," she murmured against the crook of his neck. "Really, _really_ grateful." She sighed with content, so sated and happy with the moment between them.

Then her stomach growled. Not just growled, but gurgled like a whale mating call.

Squall jerked and looked down at her, his lips tightly pressed together as he watched her shy away into the pillow. "Hungry?" he managed to ask.

Rinoa made a meek whimper. "Maybe," she said, her voice muffled by the pillow.

Squall chuckled and rolled Rinoa over so she lay on her back. "Did you want to go out for food?" he asked. "Or did you want to stay in?"

Rinoa grinned and ran her fingers through his hair. "If we stay in and order room service is clothing optional?"

"For me? Yes. For you? Clothing is prohibited."

* * *

Rinoa traced her fingernail over the tattoo on Squall's back as he lay on his stomach. "Can I ask you something?"

"You can ask me anything you want." He reached behind him and gently cupped her hand.

"This tattoo of the stars…it looks a lot like the one that Kendra has."

Squall lifted his head. "Well, they were done by the same artist," he commented.

"I really like it," she said, leaning in to inspect the inked artwork even more. "I like that the lines aren't clear. They're almost…messy and unfinished, blurry even! Your artist did a great job."

Squall rolled over and held Rinoa close to his chest. "You haven't actually asked anything."

"I know…I'm just really curious about what really happened between you and Kendra. I mean you told me that you had an aversion to putting a label on your relationship with her and yet…you have matching tattoos."

Squall arched a brow. "They're not matching," he said. "Her tattoo is of a shooting star. Mine is a constellation. Two completely different things."

Rinoa laughed and sat up. "You know what I mean!"

Squall smiled, running his fingers through her hair. "This is what happened: I went to get the one of my back touched up and after that was done the artist, Shane, wanted to add on. So I suggested the constellation of the two signs. After he did that, Kendra said that she wanted a new tattoo and somehow the theme of stars just stuck. So…she got the shooting star on her collarbone." He cocked his head and used his hands to lift Rinoa's face so that she looked up at him. "Hey, you don't think that something's still going on with me and Kendra, do you?"

"Oh, no! Not at all! But I am curious to know what really went on between you two? She told me that she had gone stargazing quite often when I asked about her tattoo…"

"I promise I never took her to the cliffside. That was all for you." He sat up and moved Rinoa so that she sat in front of him. "What happened with Kendra was that I didn't see a future with her, if you want it neatly summed up."

"Really?"

"Look, with her it wasn't just that she wanted labels or a name for our relationship. She wanted to know exactly where it was going. And after being together for six months I didn't see what she saw."

Rinoa giggled. "What, she wanted marriage?"

Squall shrugged but didn't deny the question. "I got an invitation to the SEED Holiday Banquet and since we were seeing each other at the time I thought it appropriate to invite her as my date."

"A very logical deduction," Rinoa agreed. "I would have thought the same."

"Everything was fine until we went dress shopping and she asked what I was going to introduce her as."

Rinoa arched a brow. "Ok?"

"When I said that I was going to say that she was the girl that I was seeing, she got upset. She kept asking, 'Oh, is that all?' Then I asked what I was supposed to introduce her as."

Rinoa let out a sputtering laugh. "You're an idiot," she chuckled.

"Yeah, she said the same thing." Squall sighed and leaned back against the bed's headboard. "I don't know, I mean, I cared about Kendra. A lot. But…I didn't see the same things as she did when it came to our future. I was comfortable with what we were at that moment in time, letting the chips fall where they may. She, on the other hand, wanted to know exactly where it was going."

"I've said it before that it's not a terrible question to ask," Rinoa admitted. What she _wasn't _going to admit was that she herself was very curious as to what Squall thought about _their_ relationship. Even though they both decided that they should discuss it after the tour was over, she was very interested in knowing now. But was she going to ask him? Nope. "But in my opinion six months is moving a little fast. I know that it is a stereotype for those in the military to move their relationships a little fast…sadly because they never know if they're going to come back home but…I dunno. I'm babbling. My parents met and got married in less than a year," she said. "But they waited years before having me. So…I really have no idea where I was going with this."

Squall grinned and gently nudged her arm, enjoying the sight of her flustered and suddenly unsure of her words when she normally knew exactly what she wanted to convey. "See, I didn't even think that far," he told her. "I just didn't see myself waking up next to her every day."

* * *

**Thursday July 26****th**

"You're here!" Quistis wrapped her arms around Rinoa's waist and easily lifted her into the air. "How was your flight?"

"It was good!" she laughed, planting a kiss to Quistis's cheek. After sleeping in and then having a very heated romp in the shower, Squall took Rinoa to the hotel that the rest of the band was staying in. "Are you guys excited? Your last show!" She squealed and clapped her hands. "Your last show of your _first _tour! Ah! This is exciting!"

Zell came up behind Rinoa and wrapped an arm around her shoulders. "_So_ very exciting!" he shouted. "Man, it is good to see you! Hey, there's a small gig playing tonight at the venue that we're going to be playing at, did you wanna go so you can check out the area?"

Quistis's eyes brightened and she nodded at Rinoa. "I'm game! We should do it!" She leaned in to Rinoa's ear. "Remind me to recommend you a new concealer for your neck," she whispered.

"They'll let you roam around while we check out the acoustics of the place early tomorrow but they won't have all their lights going," Squall said, completely missing the horrified look on Rinoa's face and Quistis's smug little grin. "Might be a good idea to check it out tonight."

Rinoa shrugged, recovering a quick as she could from the shock. "Sure! Why not? Who's playing tonight?"

"I don't think it's a rock concert," Zell said, scratching his chin as he tried to remember the details that he had seen online. "I think it's a piano concert. Much more chill. But the light set up would be similar!"

"Hey…Rinoa," came a quiet voice.

Rinoa turned and saw Irvine come out of hotel room. "Hey," she said softly.

The air between them was awkward for a moment. Irvine pressed his lips together and nodded slowly. "So…" he began. "Big project tomorrow night, huh?"

Rinoa nodded and gently gave Irvine a soft knock to the shoulder. "Yeah, I'm so excited. Plus, it means I get to work with you guys again! My favorite subject matters!"

Squall glanced at the exchange between the two. An elbow bumped into his ribs and he turned to see Zell nodding at them. Taking the hint, Squall walked up to Irvine and Rinoa. "Hey, get us some coffees?" he suggested, handing Irvine some bills.

"Anything in particular?" Rinoa asked Zell and Quistis.

"Just cream, no sugar," Zell replied.

"Cream and sugar!" Quistis called.

Rinoa nodded and looped an arm around Irvine's bicep. "You got it! Let's go Mr. Kinneas!" she said, ushering him down the hallway. "So," she asked as they walked towards the elevator. "How have you been holding up?"

Irvine scoffed but gave Rinoa's hand an appreciative pat. "I'm alright. How…how is she doing? I tried calling her last night but she didn't answer."

"She's…ok," Rinoa murmured. "She really does want to talk to you Irvine, but maybe it'll be best if you guys do it in person?"

Irvine nodded in agreement and pushed open the door that led to the hotel's cafeteria. "I really would rather see her in person," he said. A small smile reached his lips as he thought about Selphie. "I miss her. When I heard that you were coming to Esthar I kinda hoped that she was going to come with you."

Rinoa grimaced and scratched her neck. "If I tell you something, you promise you won't be mad? Or bring it up to anyone?"

Irvine led her to the line. "Sure?"

"Selphie was going to be here."

Irvine frowned, stepping forward with the flow of the line.

"She bought herself a ticket to come to Esthar as a birthday present to herself." Rinoa chewed her bottom lip as she watched Irvine let out a puff of air. "Yeah, but she let me have it when I told her that Djin Theory didn't have the budget to include travel expenses."

"Why would I be mad?" Irvine asked.

"Because I'm here and Selphie's not?"

Irvine scoffed. "Hey, that's her choice isn't it? There's no reason for me to be mad. Anyways, I'm hoping she and I can meet up when I get back into town."

Rinoa nodded and when it was their turn they gave their orders. "I know she'd really like that. She misses you and really wants to see you in person when you get back" she said. "Oh, by the way, I almost forgot…" She turned and kicked him square in the shin. "You fucking shit hole!"

* * *

**Friday July 27****th**** Last night of the tour**

Rinoa adjusted the focus of her camera, aiming at the stage. Zell was in the middle of his solo, his eyes screwed shut as he let his fingers skim and dance across the guitar strings. Zell bobbed his head to the quick and thunderous beat Squall supplied. Rinoa felt the vibrations from the stage echo across her flesh.

In her opinion, this was her favorite song of Absolute Lore's—aside from _Stars_, for obvious reasons—because the drumming beat was so heavy and heart pounding. This song really displayed Squall's talents as a drummer. Every time she heard the song when it came up on her mp3 player, she couldn't help but swing her hips and thrust her hands in the air in movements mimicking him.

Rinoa snapped away as Irvine leaned forward, his eyes fiery beneath the stage lights.

"_It's a shame/Such a shame…_" Irvine spun around thrust his hand towards Quistis, putting her on display as she furiously slapped her bass. "_Hard on the brain/Tear at the walls to find it/Toss it away/Find me another heart/Break the inside/Hurt in a way you'll like it/Eager to find/Find me another heart!_"

* * *

Fujin laughed and held her hand over her heart as she leaned against the mic stand. "Oh wow," she panted. "Oh _wow_! You guys…you guys are amazing! I just can't…ah!" She backed away from the mic for a moment, giggling while the crowd screamed and cheered. When she returned to the front she waved her hand over the screaming fans. "This is our last song…ah! Our _last _song!" She laughed and looked over to the rest of Djin Theory. "This tour has just been so phenomenal and we are so blessed to have been able to spend it together with all of you!" she shouted, turning back to crowd and pointing to them. "So this song is dedicated to _all of you!_ Each and every single one who has come to our shows, watched our shows online, bought our songs…this is for you! Thank you!"

She stepped back and clapped her hands, bowing to the fans and giggling as Royce and Hans stepped forward to shake a few hands. Esteban stood from his throne and smacked his sticks together.

"And thank you!" Fujin added. "To the talented musicians we've had the honor of working with on this tour! Odin's Blade, Doomtrain, and Absolute Lore! This is for all of you!"

Hans began with a few slow and easy plucks of his guitar, smiling as he watched Fujin gracefully sway and roll her hips as she cradled the mic. She locked eyes with Rinoa and sent her a quick wink.

Rinoa chuckled and weaved through the crowd so that she could zoom in on Hans. To his right was Royce, swaying slightly to the beat as he looked over to Esteban grinning behind his kit.

Fujin cradled the mic between her palms and closed her eye, letting the words flow from her. "_We could just go home right now/Or maybe we could stick around/For just one more drink, oh yeah…_" She reached down and scooped up the water bottle she had behind the stand's base and threw back a quick swig. "_Get another bottle out/Let's shoot the shit/Sit back for just one more drink, oh yeah…_"

Hans and Royce flanked Fujin, their fingers quickly working while Esteban crashed onto his drums.

"_Here's to us/Here's to love!/All the times that we fucked up…_" She detached her mic from the stand and wrapped her arm around Royce's shoulders. "_Here's to you/Fill the glass/'Cause the last few days have kicked my ass!_"

Hans leaned over and planted a quick kiss to Fujin's cheek, earning a girlish squeal from her. Rinoa nearly squealed out loud herself, completely ecstatic that she had caught it on camera. "Amazing chemistry," she whispered to herself.

"_So let's give them hell!_" Fujin shouted, squirming away from the two men. "_Wish everybody well/Here's to us…here's to us!_"

Rinoa pulled her focus away from the stage and quickly stole a few shots of the elated faces in the crowd. Suddenly, the excited voices rang into loud and boisterous hollers and applause. Rinoa aimed the camera back towards the stage and screamed along with the crowd when she saw that Djin Theory had now been joined by the members of the other bands. She felt her heartbeat quicken when she saw Squall walk onto the stage—with Quistis strapped to his back. The blonde was beaming, one arm raised high over head with her fingers in the shape of horns.

"Give it up, you wonderful city of Esthar!" Fujin cried. "We just want to thank you all so much for joining us for our tour. You have made it all worthwhile!" She turned and grabbed Morgan's hand and pulled him to the front of the stage. "_We stuck it out this far together/Put our dreams through the shredder/Let's toast 'cause things got better._"

Behind her, Zell came up to Hans and mimicked his movements, nodding his head and shooting a debonair grin to the thriving crowd.

"_And everything can change like that/And all these years go by so fast/But…nothing lasts forever._" Fujin shrieked with delight when all the band members dispersed across the stage, some clapping their hands to rile up the crowd. Quistis climbed off of Squall and raced towards the front, reaching for the hands that extended for her.

"_Here's to us/Here's to love!/All the times that we messed up/Here's to you/Fill the glass/'Cause the last few nights have kicked my ass/If they give you hell…_" Fujin punched the sky. "_Tell 'em go fuck themselves/Here's to us/Here's to us._" She clutched her breast and and shouted into the mic: "_Here's to all that we kissed/And to all that we missed/To the biggest mistakes/That we just wouldn't dream/To us breaking up/Without us breaking down/To whatever's comin' our way…_"

The spotlights flickered and moved towards Hans for his solo.

Morgan placed a hand on Fujin's waist and pulled her close, singing into his own mic. "_Here's to us/Here's to love/All the times that we messed up…_" He grinned and looked over to Irvine, sending him a quick salute.

Irvine chuckled, brought up his mic, and put on the charm for the crowd. "_Here's to you/Fill the glass/'Cause the last few nights have kicked my ass._"

Zell raced up and grabbed Irvine around the waist. "_If they give you hell!_" he shouted into the mic.

Fujin giggled and pointed her finger to Zell, who mirrored the gesture back to her. "_Tell 'em go fuck themselves!_" she screamed.

"_Here's to us/Here's to us/Here's to us/Here's to us!_" everyone on stage chanted.

Zell yanked the mic from Irvine's grasp and snaked through the stage and grabbed Squall by the collar. "Come on!" he whispered to him.

"No," came Squall's reply.

Not one to take rejection, especially from Squall, Zell grinned even wider and held the mic even closer. "Do it!"

Squall sighed but went along. "_Here's to us/Here's to love/All the times that we messed up._"

Damien, the singer from Doomtrain, belted out a gravelly howl. "_Here's to you/Fill the glass/'Cause the last few nights have kicked my ass!_"

Quistis rushed up to Fujin, who held the mic to the blonde's red lips. "_If they give you hell/Tell 'em go fuck themselves!_"

All the members joined together on the stage, surrounding Esteban's kit so he would not be excluded. Together they all chanted in harmony, "_Here's to us/Here's to us/Here's to us_" while Fujin and Quistis chimed in with "_Wish everybody well/Here's to us/Here's to love/Here's to us._"

The music cut itself off to a deafening silence while Fujin finished with the verse, "_Here's to us._"

* * *

**"Another Heart" music and lyrics by Tremonti**

**"Here's to Us (Guest Version)" music and lyrics by Halestorm**


	30. Chapter 30

The fans became a mass entanglement of deafening screams and the venue was filled to the brim of harmonious chaos. Rinoa placed two fingers into her mouth and let out a shrill whistle. Around her the energy was infectious. Rinoa felt her skin tingle and vibrate, her heart felt like it was going to explode with joy.

She clutched the camera close to her breast and hurried through the crowd. Earlier, Fujin had asked Rinoa if she could snap a photograph of all the bands together on stage with the crowd behind them. She came up to the back stage door and stood in front of a bouncer she hadn't yet met. "Hang on, I got it here," she said, reaching into her pocket for her back stage pass. "Shit! I have it I swear! Aha!" She held up the pass that boldly stated ABSOLUTE LORE and he nodded at her to let her by.

"You with the band?" he asked, closing the door behind them.

"I'm—"

"The band is with her," Squall said, circling an arm around Rinoa's shoulders and herding her towards the rear entrance of the stage.

Rinoa giggled and snapped a few shots of the several band members scrounging and scuttling across the stage, filling in at the front. Zell hoisted Quistis up in his arms bridal style, laughing loudly when Quistis leaned in and planted a giant red-stained kiss to his temple. "This was the best tour ever!" he shouted.

Fujin let out a howl and pulled Irvine onto the ground to kneel beside her. "Say cheese!" she screamed.

"Squall, get in there!" Rinoa laughed, shoving him away from her.

He gave her a slight grin that sent a ripple of heat vibrating through each of her nerves. Then it was gone and soon he was in with the crowd, his arms crossed over his chest as Gregor angled his elbow to rest upon Squall's shoulder.

Everyone let out scream and raised their arms, smiling for the camera. The crowd behind them lifted their arms as well, their hands in the shape of horns and loudly boasted their enthusiasm. Rinoa continuously clicked on her camera.

Finished, she raised her camera high above her head like a trophy. "Got it!"

The band members turned away, facing the crowd. Together they took their final bows and waved their farewells to their adoring fans.

* * *

Afterwards, all the bands gathered around the bar. Quistis had her arms looped around Rinoa's waist. "What a rush!" she laughed, tucking a strand of blonde behind her ear. "Did you enjoy the show Rinoa?"

Rinoa turned around in Quistis's arms and gave her a kiss to the forehead. "Yes! You guys were fantastic! How do you feel?"

"I feel great! Exhilarated!" Quistis squeezed Rinoa and then reached towards the bartender. "Margarita please!" she requested.

"Coming up gorgeous," said the man. He looked over to Rinoa. "And for you?"

"Um…I'll have a Long Island," she decided. She hopped up onto the barstool and arced back and forth as she waited.

Fujin danced towards her and slammed her fist onto the counter. "Goddamn!" she shouted with a wide grin. "Rinoa, _girl,_ thank you so much for coming out and photographing our show! Much appreciated!" She leaned in to give her a deep embrace.

"Of course! I had so much fun today! Thanks for having me," Rinoa said with a wink.

"Oh, _any_ time. I really can't wait to see what you've come up with. You have done such a phenomenal job with Absolute Lore's web page and social media."

"That she has!" shouted Zell, looping an arm around Fujin's shoulders. "We've been sending her pictures that we've taken off of our phones and she uploads them to the page for us."

Rinoa chuckled. "Well…_most _of them anyway. Some of them I don't post."

Fujin's brows rose in intrigue. "Oh really? What kind of pictures did you send her that she couldn't possibly post onto the internet?" She jabbed Zell in the ribs with her elbow. "You little stinker!"

Zell only gave a wide-eyed innocent stare while Rinoa nearly doubled over laughing. The bartender arrived with her Long Island and she turned away, drink in hand. She probably should have mentioned that the photos she didn't post were mostly due to them either being too blurry or that they were random shots (like the time Zell sent her a picture of his shoe that he thought he had lost the night before or the time that Quistis sent a shot of Irvine and Squall passed out on the floor together with their shirts off) but where was the fun in that?

"Hey, if you need more photos get some from Hans and Royce!" Zell called to Rinoa. "Hans is always on his damn phone and Royce got some good shots of Quistis running around with the crowd the other night when we stopped for dinner afterwards at that 24 hour diner."

"You rang?" Hans crooned, swinging around the bar so smoothly that he lined up with Rinoa in one motion. "Hello gorgeous," he smiled.

Rinoa laughed and gave him a playful shove. "Watch it Casanova," she quipped. "You spill my drink and there will be hell to pay."

"Hans, stop hitting on our Rinoa. She's way out of your league," said Zell, pointing a warning finger at him.

"Shit, all I said was hello!" Hans grinned, holding up his hands in surrender. "But, seriously, I heard Zell say something about you need photos from me and Royce?"

"He was saying that you guys had taken some pictures of the Absolute Lore members that I could possibly use for their website!" Rinoa said. "If you didn't mind sending them to me of course."

Hans shrugged and motioned for her to follow him away from the bar so he could sit down at one of the tables. "Hell yeah! I've a bunch of shots here on my phone. A lot of them I haven't had a chance to post myself yet." Hans pulled his phone from his jeans and grinned. "Here, this one was from our show the other night." He waited for Rinoa to sit down before holding his phone out in front of them.

"What a great picture!" Rinoa gasped, smiling brightly at the picture of Esteban and Squall flanking two teenage boys. One of the boys had a drum stick in his hands, the smile on his face so wide and ecstatic that Rinoa assumed that the stick had come from one of the drummers. "This is really sweet! Send these pictures to my email so I can put it up on their page!"

Hans just handed the phone to her. "There's not a whole lot, but go ahead and pick whatever pictures you want!" he said. "Most of the pictures are of the band…"

Rinoa swiped to the side and choked on a giggle at the next picture: A very busty blonde who was impressively balancing a full beer stein inside her cleavage. She clamped her lips together and slowly turned her head to Hans. "Hm…"

"…uh ok there shouldn't be anything worse than that. No nudes in there. Or dick pics. Promise."

Rinoa started to hand the phone over. "I don't know…I don't want to run the risk of it!"

"Rinoa, Rinoa I _promise._ I mean, you gotta admit, that chick had _skill_. I had to take a picture of it." He shoved the phone back towards her. "Just send whatever pictures you want. Hey, there's Royce, I think he had some good shots on his phone too. Be right back."

With a laugh Rinoa continued through the phone's camera roll. Most of the photos were as Hans had stated, photos of the bands but mostly Djin Theory. She came across a stunning picture of Quistis and Fujin standing in the middle of the lit up street of the boulevard. Quistis had one fist held victoriously high, a cigarette dangling from her cherry red lips, while Fujin stood beside her with her lips formed into a scream and her middle finger aimed at the camera. "Bombshells!" Rinoa giggled.

"Going through Hans's photo roll?" Royce said with a teasing wince. "Oh man, is _that _dangerous!"

"Hey!" Hans responded to the little remark with a quick elbow to the gut. "I'm not _that _bad."

"True, I think the blonde with the impressive balancing skills was the worst of it!" Rinoa laughed. "I was just looking at that picture of Quistis and Fujin in the middle of the boulevard. I'm so amazed you were able to get that shot! Even in the middle of the night that street's usually busy."

Hans nodded as he thought back to that night. "Yeah, we had to time it just right with the crosswalk and shit. No idea how we managed, we were pretty tanked."

"Well it came out great." She continued swiping and tried not to laugh aloud when she came across a photo of Irvine making an attempt to pose seductively across a pool table. The immediate picture after that was of him doubled over laughing, clearly not able to hold the pose for long. "Royce, what kind of pictures do you have on your phone?" she asked, looking up to see him scrolling through his feed.

"I got this really funny one of Quistis," he said. "In here somewhere. Hang on."

Rinoa chuckled and looked back down to Hans's phone while Royce continued to search for the photo in question. She shook her head as she listened to the two men go back and forth about their feedback about the show. Then she came across a photo that caused her breath to still.

There was Squall, staring straight at her, his blue eyes wide and hollow as if he were caught in the middle of alarm and bewilderment. Around his neck were slim, feminine arms. Painted across his lips were streaks of lipstick the color of blood. Even though the face of the woman clutching to Squall was not visible, the shock of silver hair peeking out just behind his shoulder made it obvious.

Rinoa felt the color drain from her face, felt her heart fall into the pit of her stomach. _What am I looking at? _She tried to recover quickly and swiped through a few photos so that Hans would not catch her staring.

Perfect timing too, because he had chosen just that moment to sit back beside her. "Show her! Show her!" he was saying to Royce.

"Found it!" Royce held the phone to Rinoa's face, showing her a picture of Quistis at a grocery store holding a tomato shaped like a perfectly round ass beside her own rump for comparison.

Rinoa giggled and handed the phone back to Hans. "That is so cute!" she managed to say without falter. "Send that to my email."

"Did you find some good pictures?" Hans asked, tucking his phone back into his pocket.

"Sure did!" Rinoa replied, reaching for her drink. She glanced around and found Squall deep in conversation with Gregor. As if feeling her gaze, he turned, his blue eyes finding hers. He sent her a slight grin, to which she responded with a small raise of her glass.

Then Fujin approached them, laughing and flicking her silver hair with those long claws of hers. Rinoa swallowed. Her stomach clenched and in her chest she felt a small pain that she couldn't quite figure out. _I feel like I'm going to puke,_ she thought. She threw back the rest of her drink and gave the two men surrounding her a quick pat to their shoulders. "Well, I should be calling it a night," she said.

"Early flight back tomorrow, huh?" Royce asked.

"Yeah. You know how it is! Great show you guys, can't wait to post the pictures later."

* * *

Squall made another round through the bar. He spotted Zell coming out of the restroom and approached him. "Have you seen Rinoa?"

Zell nodded towards the bar. "A few minutes ago. She said her goodbyes."

"What?"

Zell paused, his brows frowning as he searched Squall's expression. "She didn't…? She said she was going back to the hotel because she's got an early flight tomorrow."

Squall turned away and started to head towards the exit. Rinoa's flight wasn't until the mid-afternoon. He was supposed to drop her off at the airport no later than one o'clock. So why did she leave the bar when it was just barely after midnight?

"Squall, you ok?"

He looked back over to Zell who seemed concerned. "Yeah…yeah," he muttered, downing the rest of his drink.

Zell reached over and gripped Squall's bicep just above the elbow. "Dude, what just happened?" he asked. "Did…did she just leave without telling you goodbye? Aren't you staying with her tonight?"

"That was the plan." Squall frowned. Did something back home happen?

"You think something happened with her dad and she has to leave sooner?" Zell asked, almost as if reading Squall's thoughts.

"Fuck." Squall pulled out his phone and glanced at the time. "No messages, but if she just left then she should be at the hotel." He handed Zell his empty glass and brushed by him.

"Let me know if everything's alright," Zell said.

* * *

Squall pushed open the door and found Rinoa in the center of the hotel room, her hand hovering over her bag in the midst of packing. She stared at him with her brown eyes large and wide. Her movements didn't appear to be rushed or hurried, instead she seemed to be just calmly folding her shirts.

"What's going on?" he asked.

"Huh?" she responded.

"Why are you packing?"

Rinoa swallowed and lowered her eyes, focusing a lot of attention to the shirt that she was now re-folding. "Well I'm leaving tomorrow," she said.

"I know that. Why are you packing _now?_"

Rinoa placed the shirt into her bag and picked up a pair of leggings. "Well…I have an early flight."

Squall narrowed his eyes. From the way she was talking and now avoiding his gaze, he gathered that this was not about her father. Something else was wrong. "You don't have to be at the airport until one."

"I know," she said, turning her back towards him as she placed more clothing into her luggage.

Squall inwardly growled and ran his fingers through his hair. "Ok…_what_ is going on?"

"What do you mean?"

"Something's bothering you. You left without telling me and you told everyone else that you have an early flight to catch. Now you will hardly look at me." He came up beside her and tried to catch her gaze. "You were going to leave without telling me goodbye?"

Rinoa pressed her lips together.

Her silence stabbed into his gut. Yes. She was. He had the feeling that if he hadn't noticed that she was gone she would have packed her bags and slipped out of the hotel without a trace. She was avoiding him. "Did I do something?"

Rinoa swallowed and slowly pulled her hands away from her bag. "What am I to you?" she asked softly.

"What?"

She shyly tucked her hair behind her ear and turned towards him, her eyes still trained to the ground. "I know…I know that we agreed to talk about this when you returned to Deling but…something's come up and I feel that I would like an answer now."

"What are you talking about?"

"Fujin."

Squall frowned. "What about Fujin?"

Rinoa finally looked up, only for a moment, and Squall saw the hint of annoyance hiding behind her eyes. "I saw the picture of you two," she said.

Squall exhaled and pinched the scar between his eyes. "Fuck…Rinoa, that wasn't…it's not what you think."

"You guys have a history," she was saying. "And you've been spending a lot of time together so I can understand that maybe some sparks have rekindled. You're only human! It's just…I'm having a hard time with being ok with it."

"No, Rinoa, nothing happened. It was a misunderstanding—"

"I mean, you're a grown ass man you can do whatever you want…or _whomever_."

"Rinoa!" he shouted, trying to get a word in through her rambling. "_Nothing _happened. She kissed _me. _And Hans's dumbass came in at the wrong time and took a picture because he thought it was hilarious."

Rinoa didn't say anything but her eyes narrowed as if she didn't believe him.

"Fujin was confiding in me with something. She was upset. She kissed me and wanted more but I was not going to give it to her." When Rinoa continued to stay silent he felt his blood heat up with aggravation. "Look, if I wanted to get with Fujin that night I would have," he growled.

"Oh, yeah?" Rinoa barked back. "So why didn't you?"

Squall let out an exasperated groan and clutched his temple. "Exactly what I fucking said!" he snapped. "I didn't _want_ to! I've no desire to, I don't look at her that way, what more do you need? You have _no_ reason to be upset right now."

"That's the thing, Squall," she said softly, her voice breaking so subtly. "I know that I've no reason to be upset. You're not mine." A sad smile touched her lips and she took in a shuddering breath. "But I've been yours…for a long time now I have been yours."

Squall only stared, his brows knit into a frown as he stared at her. His lips were slightly parted as if he wanted to say something…but no words formed. Slowly he blinked as he watched her. He never wanted to make her cry—never _intended_ to make her cry, yet here she was, standing before him on the verge of tears to the point where she was practically shaking. She was fighting herself, was biting down on her lip to keep the tears in. He found that he would very much rather have her be yelling or shouting. Seeing her cry—because of _him_—nearly shattered his heart.

Carefully he reached for her, his fingers gently brushing over her shoulders, awaiting permission to touch her. When she didn't pull away from him he pulled her to his chest. "I'm sorry," he whispered. "Please, please don't cry. I'm sorry." He kissed her hair and held her tight, his eyes closing as he breathed her in. "There is nothing going on between Fujin and I."

Rinoa sighed against him and curled her fingers into his shirt. "I'm sorry I'm making such a big fuss," she sobbed.

"No," he murmured against her hair. "You should never apologize for being upset. Quistis did tell me that I should have told you about it. I just…didn't. "

"Quistis knew?"

"She was walking with Hans. She saw us. Nearly ripped my head off for it."

Rinoa stifled a laugh. Inwardly she made a mental note to hug the shit out of Quistis.

"How did you know?" Squall asked, his fingers sweeping through her hair. "How did I make you mine?" Gently he trailed his lips over her forehead.

Rinoa wound Squall's chain around her finger. She knew _exactly_ when she fell—_hard._ She had been attracted to him before, of course, had felt the little flutterings of butterflies whenever he would send her that smirk, but it wasn't until _that_ night when she knew that he took hold of her heart.

"It was…that night," she murmured, her lashes lowering as she felt her cheeks warm.

Squall's brows furrowed as he waited for her to continue. _That night?_ he wondered. There were so many nights they had spent together, and even though he felt that each of them were pretty special despite their simplistic nature, he couldn't recall him doing anything too extraordinary to make her fall for him.

Rinoa softly ran her thumb over the pendant that dangled from the chain around his neck. "That first night that you came back from tour," she said lowly. She lifted her eyes to meet his and offered a tiny smile. "When you got back into town early?"

He blinked as he remembered. He recalled sitting in the van, his gaze aimed outside as he was counting down the miles until they were back in Deling. Since his apartment was right by the off-ramp he was the first person to be dropped off. "Yeah," he whispered. "I got into my car and saw you."

"You were _exhausted,_" Rinoa chuckled. "You told me that you didn't even go into your apartment…that you just got into your Jeep and came to my place."

The corner of Squall's lips melted into a pensive grin as he watched how happy that had made her. She was smiling fully, her lashes lowered back down so her gaze was aimed at his necklace, and her cheeks were rosy from the memory.

"I mean, I figured that I wasn't just "some girl" to you," she was saying. "But when I saw you at my doorstep it showed me that I meant something to you and that you had some kind of feelings for me. We may have not known exactly what they were at the time, but…it just made me feel so special knowing that I was the first person you wanted to see."

"You mean a lot to me."

Rinoa chewed her lip and moved her hands upward so her fingers clasped behind his neck. "You mean a lot to me too," she whispered. "I'm not trying to be possessive but…I find that I'm really not too keen on the idea of sharing you with anyone. I thought perhaps I could be since we both have very busy lives but…" She shook her head and nervously giggled. "Can't do it."

"I understand the feeling." His arms came around her waist. "I definitely do not like the idea of sharing you. The thought never came to mind. You were wrong earlier, you know."

Rinoa lifted her head, her brows kitting together in confusion. "Which part?"

"When you said that I wasn't yours." His fingers roamed over her spine, one hand slithering upwards to grasp the back of her skull, tugging her head backwards so their eyes met. "Because I am. I go to bed with you on my mind and I wake up every morning wishing your face was the first thing I see."

Rinoa felt her heart swell, couldn't help but utter out a squeal of pleasure at Squall's words. _He is mine,_ she thought. _And I am his. _She raised onto her toes and pressed her lips firmly to his mouth.

"There's something you have to understand," Squall said, pulling away slightly. "I'm not one for public affection."

Rinoa smirked. "Yes, I've kinda gathered that."

"So if you're expecting all that mushy shit on your facebook or a woman crush Wednesday…yeah I don't do that."

"I feel that couples who do that on a daily are hiding something," Rinoa admitted.

"Or holding hands or matching t-shirts."

"You and I own a lot of black. Us matching is bound to happen somehow."

Squall nodded. "Touche. I'm just a very private person Rinoa, and I like to keep it that way. As long as I have you knowing that you're the only one I see then that's enough for me. With social media and technology being such a focus point nowadays, it seems a lot of men and women feel their relationship is only justified through tagged posts and hashtags. I don't do that shit. I feel it's beyond unnecessary."

"Just feed me and tell me I'm pretty," Rinoa murmured, darting out her tongue to line his bottom lip.

"Rinoa, I'm being serious."

"As am I!" she laughed. "You show affection for me in a different way. You're not public or obnoxiously loud about it. Besides," she said, coiling a strand of his brown locks around her finger. "The little things you do…like showing up at my door immediately after you come home from tour or taking me to see stars in a place you've never shared with anyone…or, I don't know, write a fucking _song _for me…that just…" She bit down on her lip and lowered her gaze. "That just makes me fall for you harder. Those things made me melt. Like…I knew there was something between us. I _knew_ that you just don't do things like that for just anyone. But hearing you say that you did those things because of the reasons I _thought _you did them…just _hearing_ you say it aloud solidifies my assumptions. And…it makes me really happy." She scrunched her nose. "Does that make sense?"

Squall nodded. "Yes," he whispered. "Yes it does. I just want to make you happy."

Rinoa smiled and pulled his face down so it was level with hers. "You do," she murmured against his warm lips. "You make me so stupidly incredibly happy. When I'm with you time just stops."

He crashed his lips down onto hers, his tongue gliding and probing into her mouth as his hands roamed the length of her back, ran over the curves of her ass and pulled her body so tightly against him that she could feel his arousal.

Rinoa pulled back, gasping, her cheeks flushed. She spun around and shoved her bag off of the bed, leaping onto the mattress and pulling Squall down hard on top of her. Swearing and moaning his name, she rocked her hips against his body. Her hands snaked their way up beneath his shirt, her nails gently pinching at the nipple ring.

Unable to stand it, Squall tore at his shirt and then reached for hers. He had to feel her skin. Had to feel her heat. Had to taste every inch of her. "Off," he demanded, his eyes darkening with desire as he watched her pull her shirt over her head and undo the snap of her jeans.

When he had her naked and spread open for him atop the bed like a feast, he licked and kissed her mouth, his fingers plunging deep inside her with a strumming rhythm that brought her over the edge with the most beautiful scream. Her moans were like music to his ears. Her scent and taste so addicting. "You are mine," he breathed into her ear.

Squall began to move himself between her legs, ready to push inside her, but Rinoa used her legs and arms to push him off of her so that he landed on his back. With a sly grin she ran her nails down the surface of his chest. "Let me," she whispered. "Please, let me."

He panted and groaned as she took his length into her mouth, swirled her tongue and pumped her hand around him. She crawled over his hips, positioned herself and lowered onto his length, gasping and biting into her lower lip. Her nails dug into his chest, scraping over the hard muscle. "And you are mine," she moaned. He pulled her face towards his for a kiss, his hips pulsing and rising to meet her.

His fingers threaded through her hair, tugged at the roots to expose her neck so he could bite down onto the sensitive flesh. She cried out and dug her nails into the sheets, fingers curling into a tight fist.

Squall rolled her over onto her stomach, driving into her from behind, his arm encircling her waist to keep her body tightly aligned to his. His other hand cupped her jaw, his tongue trailing down the slope of her neck, his teeth gently nipping at her earlobe. He panted against her burning flesh, felt his heart thunder madly within his ribcage as he watched Rinoa squirm and writhe beneath him.

There was such a fierceness in the lovemaking between them tonight. All their emotions now out in the open, coming together in a beautiful, violent, heated passion. In the back of his mind he wondered if he was being too rough. But then Rinoa shoved him onto his back, straddling his hips again with such fervor, and clamped her hands over his wrists to pin them into the mattress. He would not break this girl. She was not the little porcelain doll she sometimes appeared to be. She was fiery. She was steel draped in lace. As she undulated over him, her movements so liquid and erotic, she looked like heaven on earth.

And she was his.

* * *

**A/N: Hellooooooo my darling readers! I really enjoyed writing this chapter and I hope you guys like it too! If I didn't get a chance to personally write to the reviewers of the last piece, my bad! Been really busy with school and personal life doings. But thank you readers, reviewers, followers, all of you! xoxoxox**


	31. Chapter 31

"Thanks again for picking me up," Rinoa said to Caraway as he rounded the trunk of his sleek black Maserati Ghibli. "Selphie was going to but she had to work."

"Not a problem," he responded, placing Rinoa's bag into the trunk.

Rinoa eyed the suitcases that accompanied her bags. "Going somewhere?"

Caraway nodded and firmly closed the trunk. "After I drop you off I'll be heading up North for a training retreat."

"Oooh…fun." Rinoa made a face.

"Won't be too bad. I'm just relieved to get out of the office finally."

Rinoa stifled a chuckle and climbed into the passenger seat. Ever since his head injury, Caraway was confined to desk duty and was strictly ordered not to be involved in any strenuous physical activity. Rumor had it that he tried to venture out into a shooting range for assault rifle training but Martine strictly shut him down, saying that he did not want to face the wrath of Caraway's daughter should he get injured _again_. Even though Caraway was hardly out on the field nowadays as General, he still took great pride in being able to be a part of the backbreaking training regimes that his cadets had to endure.

"Did you get the a-ok from your doctor to do any training exercises on the retreat?" Rinoa asked, sliding the seat belt across her body.

Caraway grunted and settled in behind the wheel. "Yes, daughter, I did. I am to refrain from any hand to hand combat or anything that may result in a head injury."

Rinoa made a sympathetic whine within her throat. "Aw, so no boxing match this year then?"

"Not this year I'm afraid," Caraway sighed. "This will be the only year that I won't receive the trophy."

Rinoa rolled her eyes and smiled. Caraway's office was perfectly and neatly lined with boxing trophies. He was known as 'The Undefeated Fury' by his fellow comrades, a legendary figure told to the new recruits. Rinoa remembered watching her father's fancy footwork as he danced around the punching bag that he kept in the garage and how her mother had commented that when she first watched him in the ring, she knew he could not deny ever taking her out dancing again. _"You can __**too **__dance, Mr. Caraway," _Julia had said. _"If you can dance your feet around your opponent to avoid jabs then you can take your wife out for a waltz. No excuses."_

"How was your trip to Esthar?"

Brought back to the present, Rinoa grinned at him. "It was great! I'm so excited to upload all the shots I took. It was a remarkable experience." _Practically orgasmic,_ she thought to herself. "Can't wait to do it again."

"Would you like to grab an early dinner before I drop you off?"

Rinoa nodded. "Yes, that sounds divine."

* * *

He took her to a steakhouse a few miles out of Deling. When he pulled up to the lot Rinoa couldn't help but smile. She should have known that this was the steakhouse Caraway was thinking of. It was his favorite. This steakhouse was known for its pure talent in grilling its steak, ribs, and burgers. Rather than having the grill hidden away in the back, the wood fired grills sat proudly in the main dining area, filling the entire structure with the savory scent of smoked meat.

Rinoa could feel her mouth watering before she even set foot through the door.

The hostess smiled brightly at them, tucked a strand of golden hair behind her ear. She was pretty, had a sharp nose and perfect white teeth as well as large brown eyes that contrasted beautifully with her fair complexion. "Fury!" she said in a sweet, chirpy voice. "So nice for you to visit again! Would you like the usual spot?"

He chuckled. "Anywhere is perfect Anne, thanks."

Rinoa arched a brow. So, he still came that often did he? She stifled a laugh as she watched the hostess grow a slight flush to her cheeks as she conversed with Caraway. Clearly someone had a crush. And even though Rinoa had to admit that her father was still very much a good looking man, she would never say it aloud nor would she find it ok to find that someone around her age fancied her _father. _Not to mention, he even knew _her_ firstname by heart since Rinoa noticed that Anne was not wearing a nametag.

Anne seated them and handed Rinoa a menu. "I trust you'll get your usual?" she aimed at Caraway.

He grinned. "You know what I like Anne."

Rinoa nearly dropped her menu to the table at that. Her wide-eyed glare pointed at Caraway was completely missed, as he was waving Anne off with a low chuckle. When he was facing Rinoa his face shifted into a frown. "What?"

Rinoa just shrugged. "Nothing. Come here often?"

Caraway scoffed and leaned back against his seat. "Pretty often," he said. "We normally come around a few times a month—Martine, Dobe, and I."

Rinoa only narrowed her eyes at him and made a noise deep within her throat. "Uh huh," she muttered.

At the poisonous look that she was giving him, Caraway let out a large and vibrating laugh. "What's wrong kiddo?" His eyes sparked with mischief. "Already you don't like your prospective step-mother?"

This time Rinoa dropped the menu to the table with a _smack_, her jaw clenching and her eyes practically shooting daggers at her father. Even though she knew that he was most likely joking, the thought of her father remarrying was always worming within the back of her mind. She just hoped that it would be with someone closer to _his_ age.

"That's not funny," she grunted.

Caraway's mouth widened to a full smile, creases forming around his eyes as he tried to hold in his laughter. "It's a little bit funny."

* * *

"Hey, Caraway?"

He glanced up from cutting his steak. "Yes?"

Rinoa stabbed her mashed potatoes for a moment before continuing. "How extensive is your ability to find someone who has served in the military?"

Caraway paused. "Quite extensive." He lifted an eyebrow as he watched her slowly play with her food. "Why do you ask?"

"Would you be able to find out the names of a military squad that brushed through Winhill or was stationed near Winhill say…about twenty-six years ago?"

He nodded carefully but his eyes started to narrow at the nature of his daughter's questions. "Since it has been quite a number of years it could take me a while but, yes, I'm confident I'd be able to produce the names and identities. Again, why do you ask?"

Rinoa sighed and set her fork onto the plate. "Well…Squall's father was in the military, we don't know what branch…or his name. All we know is that he came through Winhill twenty-six years ago, when he met Squall's mother."

"Is Squall trying to find his father?"

"Eh…maybe not right at this moment but he has said that one day he would like to know who he is. I don't know, I just kinda want to be able to give him a head start." Rinoa could feel the sides of her face start to warm, suddenly uncomfortable beneath Caraway's scrutinizing gaze that was feeling more like a beacon of suspicion.

Caraway lowered his knife and fork, sighing quietly as he tried to form his words. "Rinoa, sweetheart, I may not know the entirety of your relationship with Squall but are you sure you want to meddle with something so personal in his life?"

Rinoa pressed her lips together, feeling the blush start to creep up her cheeks. "I know…I'm sure he'd probably say no but…" She chewed her bottom lip for a moment and stammered. "Well, maybe don't _look_ for him, but if he knew that it was _possible_ to find him…" She stopped talking and groaned, the gravity of her words suddenly hitting her. "You think it's a bad idea, huh?"

"Not _bad_," Caraway assured. "It is very sweet of you. However…I personally think that this is something that Squall should decide on his own. Again, I don't really know Squall, I've only met him once—sober, anyway—so I'm not sure how he would feel about certain parts of his life being dug up. Sometimes people like to leave their past exactly where it was. My advice—if you want it—is to find out if Squall wants to learn about his past before you try to dig it up."

Rinoa nodded. "Ok," she whispered. "But you feel that it _can_ be done if…he...you know, _wants_ it to be done?"

"I believe so, yes." Caraway returned to carving into his steak. "If Squall wants to find his father I am more than willing to help." He stabbed his fork into the meat. "You just let me know."

* * *

Back at her apartment, Rinoa dropped her duffle bag in front of her closet, more than ready to postpone the task of unpacking and instead flop onto the bed. The jet lag was starting to hit her and so she crawled over the mattress, laying on her stomach with her arms dangling over the edge. With a sigh she thought about when Squall took her to the airport. He had pulled the van up to the curb for departing flights and looked over at her with that slight and heart-melting smirk. She had been staring at those tender lips of his, vaguely swollen thanks to their hot and ferocious kisses.

"I know you said you're not one for public affection," Rinoa had said, running her finger down the top of his hand. "But…I really would like a goodbye kiss right now."

Squall chuckled and cupped her chin between his fingers, tilting her chin upwards so he could capture her lips. "I'll see you in a few days," he had murmured against her skin. "You will be my first stop."

Rinoa rolled onto her back and let out a very satisfied moan. She wriggled out of her t-shirt, mentally preparing herself to take a shower, and looked down at her breasts. Above her left breast and to the right of the beauty mark stamped there was a fresh hickey that he had left upon her earlier that morning. She softly chuckled to herself, thinking back to how after he had marked her flesh she decided that she had to mark his…which resulted in a tiny bite mark just above his pierced right nipple.

Her reminiscing was interrupted by a shrill tone announcing an incoming message. She shoved her hand into her bag and fumbled around for her phone.

_Q.T.: Squall is sleeping. He was supposed to be the first driving shift. What did you doooooo to him?!_

Rinoa chuckled and could only imagine the face Quistis would show to her if they were alone.

_R.H: Nothing he didn't want ;P_

She giggled and then broke into a fit of laughter when Quistis responded with a photo message of her face, her mouth dropped open and her eyes so wide that the bright blue irises were completely surrounded by white.

_Q.T: FINALLY! ALJFCWELKJDKS GAHHH MY HEARRRRRTTTTT IT'S ABOUT DAMN TIME_

"Oh honey, if only you knew," Rinoa murmured to herself.

* * *

Irvine pulled the van into the gas station and shifted the hunkering vehicle into park. He turned and tapped Zell's shoulder. "Go pay, I'll wash the windows." He signaled to Squall, who was muttering softly and rubbing the sleep out his eyes with the heel of his palm. "You're up, Leonhart."

"Yup," was Squall's response.

"Smoke break first!" Quistis demanded, reaching over Squall's hips and unlatching the door. "Go, go, go!" she hissed, all but kicking Squall out of the van with her the heels of her boots.

"Holy shit—I'm going!" Squall emerged from the van and hardly had time to stretch his arms before Quistis grabbed him by his belt and tugged him along with her to head a safe distance away from the flammable gas pump.

"Fuckin' shit," Squall grumbled, his voice muffled from the cigarette between his lips. "Were you feening that badly woman?" He reached over and flicked his lighter for Quistis.

Quistis inhaled a long drag and slowly blew out a stream of smoke between her lips, her blue eyes boring straight into Squall's. When the smoke escaped her lungs she smiled fully, exposing those perfect teeth behind her full pink mouth. "So…" she drawled, her brow lifting. "Have you decided to make it official?"

"Make what official?"

Quistis chuckled. "I finally got it out of Rinoa."

Squall exhaled a soft laugh. "No comment."

"Oh, sweetie, don't think that we didn't already know," Quistis purred, dancing her fingers over Squall's chin.

Squall only shrugged. "Not like we were trying to hide it."

"I know," Quistis said, blowing smoke through her lips. "And we also know that you intend to keep your relationships private, which is why we weren't bugging you too much about it. Although, I will say, Zell has been wondering quite loudly when you two would make an announcement."

"Announcement? Quistis, we're not getting married."

"Hey, with the way you are this is as big as something like that. What I really want to say is…I'm glad you've told her your feelings." Quistis glanced over her shoulder and saw Irvine whistling for them to come back. "A girl likes to hear it. Don't fuck it up, or we'll all kill you."

Squall laughed and flicked his cigarette out into the dirt. He slung an arm around Quistis's shoulders and herded her back towards the van. "No you won't," he said simply. "You'll never find another drummer to replace me."

"Touche," Quistis said with a grin, tossing her cigarette behind her.

* * *

**Sunday night****.**

_S.T: You busy?_

_R.H: Just editing photos at the studio but I'm heading home soon to finish up there. Watts and Zone are out photographing a wedding and it's so boring here alone. What's up?_

_S.T: I wanna hang out._

_R.H: Say no more. Meet you at my place in like an hour?_

_S.T: Indeed!_

* * *

When Rinoa pulled into her parking space she saw that Selphie had already parked her bright yellow bug in the vistor's lot. She saw that the brunette was leaning against her trunk, her eyes lowered to look at the screen of her phone.

"Hey my love," Rinoa called as she exited the Cube.

Selphie lifted her head and sent her a smile. "Hey! Get your sexy ass over here and tell me all about your trip!"

Rinoa threw her head back and laughed. "Upstairs, now," she shot back, gesturing with her hand to shoo Selphie up the stairs. "I can't say that there's much to tell!"

Selphie pursed her lips and followed Rinoa up. "Why do I not believe you?"

With a throaty chuckle Rinoa opened up her apartment and immediately went straight for the fridge. "Because you're paranoid," Rinoa called over her shoulder. "Want a beer?" she asked, pulling open the door and thrusting the top half of her body into the cool blast of air. "I knew it was a good idea to stock up on a six pack before I left," she said lowly, reaching for a cold bottle. "I am so smart, go me!" she sang.

"Uh, no thanks, I'm good," Selphie told her, flopping herself onto Rinoa's couch. "How was the show?"

"_Amazing,_" Rinoa said, popping off the cap with her key ring. "It was a great tour, all the bands are so extremely talented it's almost sickening." She took a long swig and sat down on the couch, throwing her legs over Selphie's thighs.

Selphie giggled and patted Rinoa's shins. "How was shooting Djin Theory? Got any pretty shots you can show me?"

"I do! They're all on my USB drive right now but I'll show you the shots I got when I upload them onto my computer here." She jerked her head towards her computer room and then suddenly made a face. "Although…can I tell you a secret? It might make me sound so petty."

Selphie cocked her head and gave Rinoa a look. "Oh please. How could you possibly be petty?"

"I don't think I can do another shoot for Djin Theory. At least not for a while," she added quickly.

That caught Selphie's interest. "Oh no! What happened? Did Hans go a little too far with his 'flirtation skills' with you? I heard it can get annoying but I'm sure Squall and Quistis can knock him down a few pegs if you don't do it yourself."

"No…nothing like that." Rinoa grimaced, really annoyed with herself for still feeling this way. "See…Fujin kinda um…kissed Squall."

Selphie's brows rose and her mouth formed a quiet little 'o.' "Oh…" she gasped. "In front of you?"

"No…it was a little while ago and apparently Hans and Quistis were walking by and Hans took a picture of it. I saw the picture."

"Oh fuck."

"Yeah." Rinoa sighed and sipped her beer.

"What'd Squall say about it?"

"That there was nothing going on between them. That she kissed him not knowing that he was kinda involved with someone else."

Selphie perked up. "He told her that?"

Rinoa tried not to squeal. "Yeah," she grinned.

"Eeee! How exciting for you! But…now you don't think you can work for her anymore?"

The smile on Rinoa's lips melted into a pout that looked as if she had smelled something foul. "Like I said, petty."

"Not petty," Selphie laughed, rubbing Rinoa's shins. "As long as you don't edit Fujin's pictures so she looks terrible I think you'll be fine. You know you'll be professional about it. But right now you just need a break from Djin Theory?"

"Possibly." Rinoa shook her hand in front of her as if she were shooing away her insecurity. "Anyways! Did you get to see any of the show? I think a few videos were uploaded onto their websites."

Selphie nodded. "I saw a video of Djin Theory's last song on the radio's website. It was really cute to include all the members of the other bands. Seeing them all on stage made me really proud."

Rinoa nodded and watched Selphie's face with caution. "Have you talked to Irvine lately?" Rinoa asked quietly.

"A little," Selphie murmured, her face softening at the mention of him. "I texted him this morning telling him that I watched the video and congratulated him on a wonderful tour and that I was so proud of him."

"And what did he say?"

Selphie exhaled a breath and reached into her purse for her phone. "This," she said, handing over the contraption for Rinoa to read.

_I.K: Thanks babe. But I'd rather you congratulate me in person. Please. I need to see you._

Rinoa thinned her lips and looked back over to Selphie. "You didn't say anything back," she said softly, noting that there was no conversation bubble beneath Irvine's.

"I didn't know what to say to him." Selphie dropped the phone back into her purse and tried to sink further into the couch. "But…I know that I do—at least I _think _I do—need to see him in person."

"I really think you do," Rinoa urged.

Selphie nervously chewed her bottom lip. "I just…I need to figure something out first."

Rinoa lifted her legs and moved them so she was sitting closer to Selphie. "Like what?" she asked, setting the bottle onto the coffee table. "Anything I can help with? You know you can talk to me about anything, even if you don't want a response and you just want to like…throw your words out into the universe."

"I don't know what to do."

Rinoa frowned at the sudden hitch in Selphie's voice. Her heart skipped a beat when she saw that Selphie's eyes were turning glassy with tears. Yes, she knew that Selphie was naturally upset about these turn of events with Irvine, but the way her voice warbled and the constant figeting with her fingers shot alarm throughout Rinoa's nerves. "Selphie…" Rinoa whispered. "What's wrong?"

Selphie quickly shook her head and sucked in a shuddering gasp.

"Selphie, honey, seriously what's wrong? You're freaking me out here."

Selphie bit down into her bottom lip and looked up at Rinoa with her large green eyes on the verge of spilling tears. "I'm…I'm late."

Rinoa paused. "By how many days?" she whispered. Suddenly her mind went into a silent frenzy as she thought back to her previous encounters with Selphie. Sure, maybe the signs were there…but they were far from neon signs of warning.

"Almost two weeks." Selphie pulled out her phone and produced the app she used to track her menstruation. "My cycles are normally around thirty-one days and I tend to start on anywhere between day thirty or thirty-four the _latest._ I'm on day forty-seven! I'm freaking the fuck out right now."

Rinoa gently held Selphie by the shoulders and stroked her skin, unsure of whether she was trying to calm Selphie down or herself. "Ok, ok…but that's not too bad. I mean, you have been under quite a bit of stress lately…and you know what? My period skipped out on me for a whole month one time—for no reason at all!"

"True," Selphie nodded, her chest rising as she sucked in a shaking breath. "Very true. It's just…I've never been this late before! I've been a few days off before or maybe a week but that was almost a whole year ago. I was supposed to start right before my birthday but I didn't even think about it. I don't look at my period tracker every day like I used to since Irvine's been gone. I thought maybe I ovulated late or something but…Oh shit…Rinoa! What if…what if—"

"No what if! We don't know for sure yet. Have you taken a test?"

"I…no. I haven't. I've been too scared to."

"Do you _feel_ like you're…that you are?" Rinoa asked, unable to say the word.

Selphie stammered and lifted her shoulders. "I don't know! I've never been…so like, I don't know how I'm _supposed _to feel. All I know is that I am just…losing it right now."

Rinoa turned around and scooped up her purse. "Outside. Now. Let's go."

"Fuck—right now?"

"_Now._"

"Ok!" she cried, gripping onto the banister as Rinoa ushered her down the apartment stairs and towards the light blue Cube. "Oh god…" Selphie groaned as she started to buckle herself into the car. "They're going to arrive day after tomorrow! I can't…what if…Rinoa! What the fuck am I going to do?"

Rinoa jammed her keys into the ignition and hurried out of the complex parking lot. "Let's have you take a test first before we get into that, ok? I'm here, you're not alone. Just…just breathe."

* * *

"Did we really have to buy all of these?" Selphie gasped, looking at the full shopping bag resting on her lap. "I mean do I really need to take…" She leaned forward and counted the boxes. "Fuck—five? We bought _five_ pregnancy tests?" With her jaw practically on the ground, she whirled around to face Rinoa. "Rinoa! _Five? _Why did we buy all these?!"

Rinoa kept her eyes on the road but reached over and gave Selphie a pinch. "We have to be sure!"

"But _five_?"

"Hey, at a dollar a pop you can afford to buy five to make sure!"

Selphie looked back down at the bag filled with the tests. "You sure I couldn't have bought just _one_ of those fancy ones?"

"Sweetie, these dollar store ones are _exactly _the same. You only want those super expensive fancy ones if you want to test right before your missed period. Since yours is like _two weeks_ late…you can settle for the cheap ass ones. Plus! Five of these little cheap ones will still cost less than _one_ of those fancy digital ones."

Selphie groaned.

"It's either that or I drive your ass to the doctor's and you can pee in a cup there! Or they take your blood, I'm not entirely sure."

Selphie groaned even louder. "Ugh! I hate getting blood drawn." She hastily rubbed at the bend of her elbow.

"Yeah, yeah, drink your water!" Rinoa demanded, pointing at the water bottle that remained in shopping bag.

"I wanted a soda," Selphie whined, gingerly running her fingers over the cap.

"Woman, I swear to god I will pop you in the jaw so fast…" Rinoa snarled. She parked her car and snapped her fingers towards the front door. "Go, go!"

Selphie looped her arm through the handles of the shopping bag and grabbed the water before hopping out of the car. "I'm going I'm going!" As she hurried towards the apartment stairs she broke open the cap of the water bottle and quickly chugged.

Inside, it took about twenty minutes before Selphie felt that she needed to pee. "Ok…ok. How do I do this?"

Rinoa ripped open the first package and tossed the sealed test to Selphie. "Ok…I know that there's one that you have to directly pee on but this one…" She scanned over the directions for a moment. "Hang on, let me get a plastic cup." She ran towards the kitchen and came back with a red Solo cup. "Ok. Pee in this."

Selphie took hold of the cup and went into the bathroom. After a moment she called for Rinoa. "Alright! So…in this little seal thingy there's a little dropper."

Rinoa nodded and placed the instructions into the trash. "Yeah, so suck up the pee and drop it into this little well here on the stick," she said, hovering her nail over the specific area. "It says it only needs about two to three drops."

Selphie did as Rinoa ordered and immediately looked away. "Oh my god…" she moaned, her voice cracking. "I…I can't watch." She sucked in a shaking breath and went to sit on the rim of the bathtub. "Ohmygod…Rinoa? What am I going to do?"

"Hey, first of all, you're going to breathe and calm down," Rinoa said gently, lowering into a crouch before Selphie and stroking her arms. "Ok? We're going to figure it out."

Selphie nodded and sniffled. "Yeah," she whispered. "Yeah. Could you um…could you look at it for me? Tell me what it says?" Her bottom lip trembled and she quickly caught it between her teeth. "I just…I don't think I have the stomach to look."

"Sure, of course." Rinoa stood to her feet and slowly picked up the test. Suddenly she was very aware of the blood pumping through her skull, could feel her mouth running dry. The air around her grew thick and heavy and she could hear her heart thunder within her breast. Her palms felt sweaty and clammy, causing her to almost drop the plastic stick when she saw the results. "Well," she breathed. "We didn't need those five tests."

Selphie lifted her head.

"It's um…" Rinoa swallowed. "It's um…it's positive."

Selphie only blinked, her brows knitting together and her lips parting in an expression that Rinoa could not immediately read.

"Selphie," she whispered. "You're pregnant."

Selphie didn't say anything. Instead she kept her eyes on Rinoa for a brief pause before the tears started to fall.

Rinoa softly placed the test onto the counter and dropped to her knees in front of Selphie, opening up her arms for her. A broken, heart-shattering wail erupted from Selphie's lips and she flung herself into Rinoa chest, folding into her like a little paper doll.

Rinoa just held her, wrapped her arms around her and held her tightly as if it would make Selphie feel even remotely better. No words passed between them after that, and Rinoa gently stroked Selphie's back as they sat on the bathroom floor, waiting calmly for the tears to stop.


	32. Chapter 32

**Wednesday August 1****st**** Absolute Lore returns to Deling **

Since the temperature had hit the triple digits, Rinoa sat in her living room with the windows open, fan blowing, hair piled atop her head, wearing short yoga shorts and a tank top, and a glass of icy water in her hand. In her other hand was her phone, and on the screen was her most recent text from Squall, time stamped just over an hour ago.

He said that they were almost back in Deling, but were starving so they decided to stop at a restaurant first. He even asked if she wanted him to bring her anything.

Rinoa couldn't help but smile at that. "No, just bring you," she had murmured to herself, typing those exact words with a suggestively flirty emoji.

_S.L: Should be back around 6_

_R.H: Drive safe! When you get here let's go on a movie binge._

_S.L: Anything you want._

She set the phone onto the coffee table and pulled up her laptop. Last night she had finished uploading her approved shots from the tour and sent them out to their proper bands. With a soft sigh she drank from her water glass and set it upon the table. She opened up her photography page's social media and noticed that she had a new notification.

Fujin had shared one of the shots that Rinoa had taken from the last show of the tour. It was when Fujin was belting out _"Here's to us" _before the other bands had joined her on stage. Rinoa had shot up from an upward angle. The lights shone down on Fujin, illuminating her and creating glistening and sharp sheens across the studded belt that slung low across her hips. Her head was tilted back and the light gleamed beautifully over her cheekbones.

Fujin was the embodiment of the rock and roll siren she said she was.

"God she's beautiful," Rinoa muttered under her breath. "I can't stand her." She let out a chuckle and went on to read the words that Fujin had written beneath.

_This was a remarkable tour. I cannot even begin to verbally express how honored and blessed I am to have worked with such talented souls over the last several weeks. We at Djin Theory got to play with some old friends of ours back from our times playing the streets of Deling and even got to play with a band that has been a part of our musical and lyrical inspirations. We have met so many fans across the entire country and can I just say that we love you all! You are the ones that drive us so hard. You are the ones that keep us going. It was an honor to have met some of you guys and thank you so much for coming out to see us!_

_And many, many, MANY thanks to our new dear friend, Rinoa Heartilly. You guys are witnessing these amazing and pristine and jaw droppingly stunning shots all thanks to her. You may have seen her sneaking through the crowd to snag some of these shots you are looking at!_

_Rinoa, your talent is far beyond your years. Your eye for detail and ability to capture so much raw emotion and feeling in a __**photograph**__ is beyond awe inspiring. Thank you so much for capturing our final show with such beauty._

_Here's to you, Rinoa, you talented angel._

_We hope to work with you again soon!_

_xoxoxoxoxox_

Rinoa scrunched her face and made her hands into little fists as she waved them above her head. "Ugh I can't hate her!" she squealed. She let out a long sigh and readied her fingers over the keyboard to respond.

_It helps when I have such wonderful subjects! You guys are beyond incredible and I cannot wait to work with you guys again! =D_

Rinoa cracked her knuckles and reached for her water. "I can't hate her, I can't hate her," she repeated to herself. "She didn't know…" And yet, Rinoa felt such a strong urge of dislike towards her. She looked at Fujin's beautiful face and wanted to snarl. "No! I am _not_ this petty!" With a click she snapped the laptop closed and gently tossed it to the other couch cushion. "I'm twenty-five years old, goddammit!" she said, standing to her feet and crossing over the living room to busy herself by picking up random clutter and dusting her bookshelf.

A few hours later Rinoa's ears perked up when she heard the sound of a car's engine pulling up in front of the apartment. She pulled herself away from the sink where she had been rinsing out a mug. She was just drying her hands on her shirt when she heard a calm knock at her door.

As a glance at the clock told her that it was a quarter after six, she walked over to the door and swung it open to feast her eyes on the delicious Squall.

He was leaning a shoulder against the door frame and his stormy blue eyes caught hers with a smoldering heat that spread tingles all across her flesh. Rinoa smiled at him and snagged his shirt by the front. "Get in here," she said, planting a kiss to his mouth.

He responded by snaking his left arm around her waist and stepping forward, kicking the door closed with his boot. "God it's good to be home," he murmured against her cheek.

Rinoa felt her heart swell almost painfully. _Home. _Did he mean that her place was home…or Deling? _Oh, whatever, he's here. That's all that matters,_ she thought, wrapping her arms around his neck and leaving a quick trail of kisses along the edge of jaw. "What have you got there?" she asked, pointing to the black plastic bag he carried in his right hand.

"Made a quick stop on my way here," he said, making his way to the kitchen. He shrugged off the black knapsack that was hanging off his shoulder and tore away the plastic bag. Squall pulled out a six pack and set it onto the counter. "Damn it's warm here," he said, tugging off his t-shirt and tossing it beside the beer.

Rinoa licked her lips at the sight of Squall's now bare arms. His chest was still concealed due to the sleeveless black undershirt he wore, but she could easily rectify that…

Squall reached into the six pack and pulled out a bottle by the neck. "I can't tell you how excited I am to be back in town," he said, twisting off the cap as he spoke. "I get to eat home cooked meals rather than fast food all the time, get to relax on my own damn couch rather than a van bench seat, and best yet…" He reached over and ran his fingers through her hair. "…I get to enjoy your company as often as we'd like."

A wide grin spread across her face and she let out a girly giggle. "Same," she said. "It'll be nice to see you more."

He raised an unopened beer bottle to her and she shook her head.

"No thanks," she said. "Don't really feel like it right now."

He just shrugged and sipped at his own bottle. "Suit yourself."

Rinoa pulled open a cupboard and rummaged through the contents, smirking when she finally was able to pull out a box of microwavable popcorn. "Oh! Before I forget…" She ripped away the plastic covering and plopped a bag of popcorn onto the counter. "I have a little present for you."

Squall lowered his bottle and cocked his head. "Oh?"

"It's in my office."

She took his hand and led her into the smaller room. "Hang on," she said, flipping through a stack of papers and books that were to the side of her monitor.

While she searched for his present, Squall casually lowered himself into her computer chair and tipped the bottle back to his lips. His eyes scanned across the surface of her desk and landed upon her Wacom tablet. "You have a computer, laptop, and a tablet," he murmured. "You use them all for your photography?"

"Pretty much. Mostly all the files are shared between them all. The tablet was handy when I was hanging out at the hospital with my dad. You know, smaller and less shit to carry."

Squall nodded and absently touched the tablet, bringing the screen to life. The image that came forward caused him to still, his brows furrowing. With his free hand he picked up the tablet and looked at the image of his face staring right back at him…with little doodles drawn upon it.

"Here it is!" Rinoa straightened up and then froze when she saw that he was looking at the picture of himself that she had 'edited.' "Oh…shit." She chewed on her bottom lip as she watched Squall stare at the tablet.

After a moment he turned his head towards her, his lips thinned into a straight line. Quietly he set the tablet down and slowly drank from his beer. "Nice work," he said finally. "I especially like the flies buzzing around the piece of shit you drew on my hair."

Rinoa released a nervous chuckle. "Hey at least I didn't post it!"

"Why'd you draw on my face?"

"Oh, um…I was mad at you for not telling me that you were leaving."

Squall nodded and leaned back into the chair. "Ah. I suppose that is well deserving." He glanced back at the tablet before looking at her face again. "But you like it so much that you made it the wallpaper of your tablet?"

"Yes." She waved her hand at him and handed him his present. "Anyways, here's your gift! Ignore the tablet. Focus on this only please."

Squall laughed and took the slim, rectangular box from Rinoa's hands. "Alright." He opened up the box and paused. He reached over and placed the beer bottle onto the desk so not to risk dropping it. "What the…"

It was the photograph of his mother in front of The Wishing Star, pristinely set into a pewter frame. The photograph itself was cleaner, crisper than he had remembered when he had seen it at The Limit. He raised his eyes to her.

"I scanned it in to my computer and cleaned it up a bit," Rinoa said. "The quality of it was lessened a bit when she scanned it onto regular copier paper but I tried my best to make it look like the original."

Squall ran his fingers over the corners of the frame, staring intently into the face that smiled up at him. He remained quiet, and Rinoa stayed standing near the end of her desk, watching him and trying to gauge his reaction.

Still not saying a word, Squall placed the frame back into its box and set it onto the desk by the tablet. Rinoa bit down on her bottom lip, her mind racing in wonder if she had upset him. Or perhaps the sight of his mother upset him?

He stood to his feet and slid his arms around Rinoa's waist, lowered his head and captured her lips with his own. His movements caused her to step backward, gasping slightly as she ran into the wall. He took the opportunity to prod his tongue into her open mouth. Slowly he pulled away, his teeth lightly nipping at her bottom lip. "Thank you."

Rinoa looped her arms around his neck and let her fingers thread through his hair. "You're welcome."

Squall crouched down and hoisted her up by grabbing the backs of her thighs. Instinctively she wrapped her legs around his hips and Squall maneuvered them out of the office. He fully intended to take her to the bedroom, to strip her from her clothes and drive himself into her so hard that she screamed and left welts along his back, but her tongue traced along the shell of his ear, sending shivers down his spine, that he dropped her onto the couch and immediately hooked his fingers along the waist band of her shorts.

Before Rinoa could get a word out, Squall had her shorts and panties flung behind him, her thighs resting on his shoulders, and his tongue swirling along the junction between her legs. Rinoa clamped a hand over her mouth, her stomach clenching as her nerves were overcome. Her eyes rolled into the back of her head and her free hand tugged her shirt upward, exposing the soft black cotton bra beneath.

She opened her eyes, a breathy moan slipping from her when she saw that Squall was staring right at her, his blue eyes darkened with lust, a fire within that scorched her with the lavish touch of his tongue.

His fingers plunged inside her, thrusting, massaging, caressing over her folds as his tongue and lips roamed. When her hips started bucking and her fingers clutched at his head he quickened pace, his other hand reaching upwards to fondle her breast and roll over her nipple.

Rinoa's spine arched and her head fell back. Her thighs clenched and tightened around Squall's head, trapping him and keeping him at work. She panted and cried out as she came, her entire body shaking and quivering. Squall's mouth continued its torture, riding out her orgasm to the last drop.

She whimpered. He wasn't letting up. His delectable tongue continued circling, pulsing against her despite her trying to pull away. His hands cupped her rear, kept her close. "Squall," she gasped. "I've already…I…"

He pulled his mouth away, barely, replacing his tongue with his fingers. "Again," was all he said.

Rinoa made a noise deep within her throat. She felt her eyes roll into the back of her head as Squall's fingers circled rhythmically across her drenched clit. "Fuck…but I…" She groaned and dropped her head back into the cushions, her hands gripping the back of the couch above her. "Squall!" she shouted, bucking her hips again as her second orgasm rippled through her.

He placed gentle kisses along the inside of her thigh, scraped his teeth across her flesh before pulling away.

Rinoa gasped, her head still resting against the back of the couch. Her heart pounded madly as she tried to catch her breath. Then Squall returned and pushed her legs upward so they rested along his shoulders.

His hand caressed the curve of her jaw. His thumb rubbed along her bottom lip. She poked out her tongue, caught his thumb between her teeth. Slowly he inserted his length into her, his eyes never straying from hers.

Her jaw dropped open in a silent gasp and her hands slid around his neck to bring his lips closer to her.

"God you are beautiful," he growled against her mouth, thrusting his hips forward until he was completely sheathed within her. With each thrust he felt himself plunge deeper, deeper inside her and felt his body align tightly with hers.

Rinoa held on for dear life. She felt her breath hitch when Squall's fingers slowly came around her throat. It was such a contrasting sensation. His thrusts and bucking of the hips were so jarring, so rough and so _now, now, gotta have it now,_ while the touches on her throat were so gentle and light. Rinoa tilted her head back to look into his eyes. He was watching her, gauging her reaction.

She gave him a slight nod and his fingers slowly squeezed. His other hand reached around and pinned her hands high above her head. She was completely at his mercy. A thrill raced through her veins and she felt lightheaded at the new sensations he was plunging into her.

Squall squeezed harder. "Just tell me if it's too much for you," he panted between thrusts.

Rinoa nodded and let her head fall back, relishing this new act between them. Along the backs of her thighs she could feel Squall's hip bones pound at her. She knew she would feel invisible love bruises tomorrow. Squall quickened the pace, and with that his grip around her throat tightened.

Her eyes shot open, a quick wave of panic shooting through her, and she wriggled a hand free and rapidly tapped at his bicep. Immediately he retracted his hands, instead sliding them beneath her back so he could embrace her. His thrusts calmed, slowing into smooth and rhythmic pulses.

"I'm sorry," he whispered. "Sorry. Are you ok?"

Rinoa nodded, moaning as she moved her legs to tighten around his waist. "Yes. Don't stop."

Squall suckled gently along her throat, his tongue laving across the area that he had squeezed too roughly. His speed picked up again, his arms keeping her in a sweet embrace. When he finally came he captured her lips in a long, deep, slow kiss. "You're beautiful," he said again, more of a groan than actual words.

Rinoa moaned against him, her hands trailing along his back, her nails digging in and leaving burning streaks across his flesh. She panted, desperately trying to catch her breath.

Still inside her, Squall rolled them over so that Rinoa lay on his chest. Gently he caressed her neck and massaged the back of her skull. "I didn't hurt you, did I?" he asked softly.

"No," she sighed with a tiny shake of her head. Hardly able to keep her eyes open, she simply placed a kiss above his pierced nipple. "I'm ok."

"You sure?"

With a light chuckle she managed to push herself up onto her elbows and kissed him sweetly on the mouth. "Yes," she murmured. "I'm just…not quite used to that. But I trust you. I know you'd never hurt me…at least not intentionally."

Squall cupped her jaw between his palms and stared into her eyes. "The last thing I want to do is hurt you. Or make you afraid of me."

Rina made a satisfied moan within her throat and kissed him on the forehead. "Never."

* * *

A little while later Rinoa had dressed herself back into her chill shorts and a loose t-shirt that hung off of her shoulders. Squall was lounging on the couch, wearing only his jeans and sleeveless undershirt, a beer in one hand while he messed with the remote control.

Rinoa pressed the start button on the microwave to heat up the popcorn she had completely forgotten about. "I can't wait to watch this!" she called to him. "I've been hearing really good reviews about it."

She glanced into the living room and felt her heart skip a beat at the sight of Squall looking so comfortable and at ease on her couch. He seemed so at peace, so…at home. She swallowed and turned her attention back to the popcorn. A blush crept up to her cheeks as she thought about how savagely he had fucked her just moments prior. She'd had rough sex before, sure, but with him…it was so different. With Squall there were two sides to his lovemaking, she'd had experienced that before with him, but each time the passionate roughness would go higher and higher. What if she couldn't come back down? Her body was still humming. She was still incredibly wet. She still _ached_ for more.

_Good lord he's turning me into an addict,_ she thought to herself.

"Hey, Rinoa."

She perked up and turned around. "Hmm?"

"Your remote's dead." Squall opened up the back of the remote and spun around the batteries. When that old tried and true trick did not work, he looked over at her with a sigh. "Bring me some batteries?"

"Yeah, I have some here somewhere…" The microwave beeped behind her and she pulled out the bag, placing it onto the counter while she rummaged through her junk drawers. "Oh, shit." Rinoa frowned when she didn't find what she was looking for. "I could have sworn I just bought some not too long ago."

"We don't have to watch a movie," Squall said.

"No, no," Rinoa pressed, shaking her hand at him. "I've been wanting to see this movie for a while. You are not getting out of it!"

Squall frowned. "Wasn't trying to get out of it." He set the remote onto the coffee table and stood to his feet. "I take it we'll just go to the convienient store down the block?"

"Yeah, let me just change real quick." She sprinted to her bedroom and gasped when Squall easily fell in behind her, his arms looping around her waist and his lips at the bend of her neck.

"I don't know," he murmured. "I kinda like you with that 'just fucked' look."

Rinoa laughed and pushed him away, immediately fussing with her hair to make it more presentable. "I'm sure you do but personally I'd prefer it if _you_ were the only one who saw me like that." She peeled off her yoga shorts and pulled on the first pair of jeans she could find. After a quick glance at her reflection she brushed through her hair and smoothed her hands down the length of her neck.

"Ready?" Squall asked, tugging on a shirt over his head.

"Yes!" Rinoa slipped on a pair of sandals and followed him out the door.

* * *

Rinoa veered towards the right and headed for the batteries while Squall stayed near the front of the shop and perused the magazines. "You sure you didn't want me to grab you anything?" he called to her before she disappeared from his sight. "You want beer or anything? Wine?"

Rinoa just shook her head and vanished behind the aisle gondolas. "I'm fine, really, not in the mood to drink tonight."

Squall just nodded and reached over to grab a bottle of wine anyway, just in case if she changed her mind later and was not in the mood for beer.

"Why, if it isn't Leonhart!"

Squall turned and saw Dr. Kadowaki standing behind him with a small paper bag bundled in her arms. He grinned and leaned in to give her a hug. "How are you?" he asked her.

"Oh, I'm great! Nothing too exciting or different going on in my life. So how did that tour of yours go, Mr. Big shot Rock Star?" she asked which a chuckle, shuffling the bag against her chest to free up her arm. She reached over and gave Squall a playful jab to the ribs with her elbow.

"It was an experience," he said with a laugh.

"Any new plans with the band now?"

"Tour wise? No. At the moment we're just enjoying being home."

"Oh good! Did you just get back home?"

Squall nodded. "Yeah, a few hours ago. So we're just relaxing. Probably going to start recording soon but that's about it."

"How wonderful!" Kadowaki's eyes traveled down to Squall's hands, which still held the bottle of wine around the neck. She smiled at him. "Having a special night then with someone to celebrate?" she asked with a hint of teasing in her voice.

Squall raised a brow and followed her gaze back to the wine. "Oh. No, just hanging out with a friend."

Kadowaki pursed her lips but didn't press the issue further. "Let me know if you need to come back," she said. "I know a lot of folks will be happy to see you again."

"Thank you, I will keep you updated."

She gave him a swift kiss to the cheek and patted his arm in farewell.

While Squall was busy watching Kadowaki leave, he didn't notice Rinoa standing in the aisle behind him, listening in. Her brows furrowed together for a moment as she replayed his words in her head. _"Just a friend." _With a deep breath she put on her nonchalantly happy face and rounded the corner, seeming surprised to find him there.

"Oh! What did you find?" she asked.

Squall held up the bottle. "Figured you might want some wine since you don't seem to be in the mood for beer."

"Why Mr. Leonhart," she purred. "You wouldn't be trying to get me drunk, would you?"

"Not at all, Miss Heartilly."

Rinoa playfully shoved at his arm and moved towards the cashier to pay.

* * *

Rinoa lay with her head in Squall's lap, licking the remnants of salt and butter from the popcorn off of her fingers. Squall was absently twirling an empty beer bottle between his fingers while he stared at the screen before him.

_"__Ack, that's a fun little nickname he likes to give me. I called him Lion-Fart once. He did not like that one, let me tell you, it was not a good day for me."_

Rinoa instantly looked up at him after the little sheep onscreen had spoken. Rinoa's eyes were so large and wide, her mouth open in an adorable smile.

"Don't you dare."

* * *

After _Zootopia, _Squall put in _Young Frankenstein,_ and he and Rinoa went back and forth with quoting the movie in its entirety to the point where Rinoa got up in the middle of the room and danced along with Gene Wilder to _"Puttin' on the Ritz."_ Squall only shook his head but the wide smile couldn't help but be plastered on his face.

When they decided it was time for bed, Squall lay on his side and traced lazy circles along Rinoa's bare spine (he insisted she go to sleep in the nude, just in case). He watched her close her eyes, a tiny smile on her lips as she quietly moaned to his touch.

"Mmmm, that's feels good," she murmured. "I love your hands."

"My hands love touching you."

Rinoa chuckled and blew him a kiss.

Squall lifted up onto his elbows and ran his fingers through her bangs. A soft smirk curved into his lips as he watched her sigh and snuggle closer into her pillow. He leaned in and placed a quick kiss to her forehead and shifted himself so that he exited the bed.

Rinoa moaned softly and opened her eyes. "You ok?"

"Yeah, just going out for a smoke," he said, pulling on his jeans discarded from earlier.

"Ok."

Outside, Squall looked out to the sky as he blew out a stream of smoke. Where Rinoa's apartment resided, he was actually able to see some stars, more than he was able to back at his place. Her patio faced the canyon entrance she lived near, where street lights were very few and far in between. It was something he hadn't yet noticed.

He thought about the photograph that Rinoa had so kindly reprinted and then professionally framed for him. It was an exceptionally thoughtful gift. No girl he had been with had ever given him a gift with so much meaning, so much intimacy, so much…_feeling_, before. He was overcome with so much emotion that he had to have her, had to become one with her. He _needed_ to touch her, to taste her, to be inside her. Her luscious screams, they had to fill his head. Her breathy moans had to fill his mouth.

She was more than he could ever have wished for. She was more than he ever thought he deserved.

He took one last hit off of the cigarette before crushing it into the concrete.

Nothing made him happier than knowing that he was going to crawl into bed with the woman he was crazy about and being able to wake next to her in the morning.

He made his way into the bathroom and lifted up the toilet seat. He thought about ways he could thank her for the gift she had given him. There had to be something he could do that would hold as much meaning to her as Raine's picture did for him. A small itch at the back of his mind suggested that he get a hold of Rinoa's father for ideas…but that got ignored pretty quickly.

Squall straightened his jeans, tugging at the belt. "Shit," he muttered when his lighter slipped out of his pocket and dropped into the wastebasket. With a groan he picked up the basket and set it onto the bathroom counter. With a quick glance he deduced that there wasn't much in the trash so it wouldn't be much of a hassle to dig through it for his lighter. Luckily nothing gross was inside.

He shoved aside the flaps of tissue and used cotton balls until he found the black lighter settled at the bottom. He was just about to grasp his fingers around it when he saw something else plastic beside it. "What…?" His breath stilled and he grabbed the plastic stick rather than his lighter. His mouth ran dry when he realized what he was holding in his hand. The little pink plus sign practically glowed against the white plastic surface.

Squall wet his lips with his tongue as he tried to gather his thoughts, but rather than focusing on one train of thought, his mind only honed in on that little pink plus sign. Suddenly he thought back to how Rinoa declined drinking tonight. He had even poured her a small glass of wine and she took barely even a sip. In fact the glass was still sitting on the coffee table.

He thought about all the times that they had had sex, and that each time he produced a condom. Even tonight, when he rushed at her in the throes of passion, he was able to step away and roll one on. It was a goal of his to never create a bastard like himself, a child who would never know who his father was. Granted, his relationship with Rinoa was a far cry than whatever was between his parents, but he was adamant about using condoms always. However…and this is where he started kicking himself, he always finished inside her.

There was still that tiny, miniscule chance.

The longer he stared at the pregnancy test the harder he tried to analyze Rinoa's every move. He couldn't make sense of it. But there in his hands was a positive test, one that had clearly been in the trash for at least a full day.

The longer he stared the more terrified he became.

* * *

_**Zootopia (c) Disney**_

_**Young Frankenstein (c) Mel Brooks.**_


	33. Chapter 33

**Happy New Year everyone! xoxoxox**

* * *

Rinoa moaned and twisted within her bed. She turned onto her back and stretched her arms high up above her head, her knuckles gently rasping over her headboard. As she groaned and rubbed the sleep from her eyes, she shifted her legs this way and that, searching for another pair of legs to entangle with. When she came into contact with no such legs, she opened her eyes and moved onto her side.

There was nothing but an empty pillow in place of where Squall's face should have been.

With a soft sigh Rinoa sat up, holding the blanket over her breasts. "What time is it?" she muttered to herself. She reached over to her phone and saw that it was just barely after eight in the morning.

"Hmm," she murmured, sliding out of bed. He wasn't in the bathroom and when she walked into the living room she found that empty as well. "Where did…?" She saw that his shoes were not by the door where he had left them the night before. Rinoa swallowed and headed back to her room for her phone.

A wave of relief washed over her when she saw that his beat up black knapsack was still leaning against the left side of her bed. After opening it up and seeing his clothes inside, she frowned and crossed her arms. "Strange…"

Behind her she heard her front door open up. Standing at the mouth of her hallway, she watched as Squall entered into the apartment, a black plastic bag tucked under his arm. He glanced up, seeing her, and paused, his brow raising a fraction.

"Holy shit," he said, closing the door behind him. "You might want to put some clothes on."

Rinoa glanced down. She had left her blanket on her bed, so now she was standing in her hallway with her bare breasts on display and wearing nothing but a gray lacy thong. "But why?" she teased him with a smile. "I quite enjoy walking around my apartment naked." She strode up to him and ran her fingers through his hair and trailed light kisses along his jaw as she stood on tiptoe. "Especially when there's a super hot guy to get naked with me."

Squall chuckled and reached around to give her ass a firm squeeze. "Can't really argue with that," he said, smacking her cheeks before detaching so he could enter the kitchen.

"Where'd you go?"

"Ran out of cigarettes so I just walked to the store." He rustled through the black plastic bag and pulled out a bottle of creamer. "You were also low on creamer," he said, shoving the crumpled plastic bag into his back pocket.

"You don't put creamer in your coffee."

Squall paused as he was opening the fridge. He arched a brow at her. "Yeah…but you do."

"Oh." She rubbed her eyes and listened as Squall prepared her coffee maker. "Did you sleep ok?"

Squall nodded and bustled around the kitchen to prepare the coffee machine. "While that's brewing I'm gonna have a cigarette." He turned and gave her a slow, delicious once over. "You are more than welcome to join me, but you may want to get dressed first."

* * *

After Squall made her breakfast and then pulled her into the shower for a steamy romp, Rinoa stretched her legs out over Squall's thighs and made a satisfied purr within her throat when he started to massage her foot. They were back in her bed, amidst the tossed around sheets and pillows. Rinoa inwardly announced that it was her favorite place at the moment.

Absently she rubbed at her throat, which was tender and sensitive thanks to the scruff on Squall's chin and his biting kisses. Her insides warmed as she thought back to how Squall's hands possessively clutched the curves of her hips as he thrust into her, trailed hot kisses down her throat and explored her mouth with that debonair tongue of his.

She watched him press through the photos on her camera. Currently there were about three hundred shots of a maternity shoot she had done about a week prior. Her model, Celina, stood along the broken rubble of the orphanage Rinoa had shot Absolute Lore at before.

Celina perched upon a pile of shattered concrete, her large belly completely exposed. Oxblood red claws cradled her belly and her breasts were shielded by her long, blonde dreaded hair. Around her hips was a simple black crocheted wrap, with just a hint of her tattooed left foot peeking out from beneath.

Rinoa tried to gauge Squall's reactions. Simply put, there were none. His face was as blank and stony as ever as he clicked through. His hair was still wet from the shower, slicked backwards with only a few stray pieces fallen over his brow. He looked incredible. Rinoa was slightly annoyed that he was holding her camera and thus could not take a picture of him…but he probably would have found some way to avoid the camera anyway.

"What do you think?" she finally asked. "Please, hold back your excitement, you're embarrassing me."

Squall lifted his gaze and something in his eyes made Rinoa's breath hitch. For a split second he looked angry and then it was gone in an instant, replaced with his normal and stoic expression. "Sorry," he said. "They're beautiful. I've never really paid much attention to maternity shots before until you came along."

Rinoa smiled. "She's a friend of a girl whose maternity pictures were done back in June. That girl actually had her baby recently and emailed me about doing her newborn pictures." Without meaning to, Rinoa made a sour face.

Squall arched a brow. "You don't want to?"

"I've never done a photoshoot with a _baby._ A preschooler? Yes…and that was quite the task. Granted that was when I was still in school so I wasn't as experienced but…little squirmy kid models are more challenging than adults. Great for candid shots though!" Her phone started to ring and she reached towards the side table. "Hey," she said to Selphie on the other side.

"Hey babe," came Selphie's reply.

Rinoa paused. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing. Is Squall by you?"

"Yes?"

"Has he told you anything about Absolute Lore's plans today?"

"No?" She looked over to Squall who was quietly watching her. "Does the band have plans today?"

Squall shrugged and gently placed Rinoa's camera onto the side table. "We did have a meeting with Cid this morning but he had to cancel because he forgot he had an eye appointment." He frowned. "But I know that Irvine was expecting a call from Kiros. Why?"

"Selphie's asking."

He held out his hand. "Give me the phone."

Rinoa handed it to him.

"Selphie."

"Hi Squall," she sighed.

"Was Irvine supposed to meet you or something?"

"Well…kinda. We made plans to meet up today for breakfast but he completely flaked on me. I know I shouldn't be _too _upset because I've been making up excuses to talk to him for the last week but…this isn't like him."

Off to the side, Squall's phone started to beep. He signaled for Rinoa to grab it for him.

"It's Irvine," she said.

"What's it say?"

Rinoa swiped open the screen and read off the words, "Just spoke with Kiros, we are all set to do a recording session on Saturday." Her eyes widened. "Recording session?"

Squall gave a slight grin. "We're doing an LP," he said. Before Rinoa could exclaim her excitement, he held out a hand to stop her and went back to speaking to Selphie. "Hey, so Irvine flaked because he must have gotten that call from Kiros. Just be patient, he'll most likely call or text you in a minute to ask you to dinner instead."

Selphie let out a sigh. "Ok. Thanks Squall."

"Yeah." He handed the phone back to Rinoa.

"You ok?" she asked when the phone was back to her ear.

"Yeah, I'll just wait like Squall told me to. But um, hey, do you think you'll be able to ditch him in a bit?"

Rinoa frowned. "Possibly. Why? What's up?"

"I was able to get a doctor's appointment for two o'clock. Could…could you come with me? I _really_ don't want to go alone."

Rinoa glanced at the time and saw that it was just after twelve-thirty. "I can do that. How're you feeling?"

"Ugh, I think the nausea I'm feeling is mostly due to anxiety about seeing Irvine. But…I feel ok. I guess. I mean, I've never been…pregnant before so this is all incredibly new."

"Understandable."

"I'll be at your place in thirty. I have to be at the doctor's at one forty-five the latest because I have to fill out all that new patient paperwork. I'll text you when I'm close."

"I'll see you later." Rinoa hung up and placed the phone back onto the night stand. "So…tell me about this LP!" she exclaimed, hopping back onto the bed and sliding her bare legs over Squall's thighs as she snuggled into the crook of his neck.

Squall grinned and ran his palm up the length of Rinoa's shins, squeezing his fingers gently around the meat of her thigh. "Well, Friday we have to go to our studio to come up with some new songs because Saturday and Sunday we're going to be staying down in Galbadia to record those songs."

"How many songs are going on the LP?"

"I think Irvine and Kiros were shooting for twelve. But right now we only have seven completed songs…eight if you include _Stars._ We have been fucking around with some music while on tour but we haven't actually _finished_ anything with lyrics included. So I hope you didn't have plans for us this weekend because we're pretty much going to be MIA."

Rinoa sat up and planted a kiss to his cheek. "I'm so proud of you!" she said. "And don't worry, I have nothing planned for us this weekend. Caraway's at a training retreat so I do have to check on the house, mostly by picking up the mail because he was waiting for some notice from his doctor."

"Something important?" Squall asked, his brow raised.

"About his health? No, thankfully. Mostly paperwork that he has to get notarized and then send in." Rinoa leaned back against the pillows and groaned. "What a day," she murmured. She looked over to Squall and smiled. Her fingers reached up and gently traced the strong line of his jaw. "What are you thinking?" she asked softly.

His eyes traveled down the length of her body and she immediately took that as a naughty sign. She chuckled and ran her nails across his chest, relishing the feel of the fabric of his t-shirt beneath her fingertips. Before she could lift her lips to his, he gently lifted up her shirt and laid a hand over her belly.

The movement was so shy and gentle that Rinoa narrowed her eyes. He had never touched her stomach in that type of manner before. Normally he would place a hand on top and then squeeze or caress, never had he _touched _it with a hesitant yet protective sense. She placed a hand over his. "Hey," she whispered. "Everything ok?"

He wasn't looking at her, instead his gaze was transfixed to her middle. His mouth parted as if he was about to say something, but then his lips twisted and then scowled as he tried to form the words.

"I'm…" he began. He shut his eyes tightly, his brows gathering as his frown deepened.

Rinoa could only blink and try to steady her breathing as she waited for him to continue. She wasn't sure what to make of his behavior. His actions and verbiage had always been aloof and quiet, so there was nothing new there. Even though they were still getting to know each other, Rinoa felt that they were comfortable enough to speak what was on their minds. Squall certainly had displayed that he had no holds barred when it came to expressing his opinion—even with her. But as she watched him she could tell that he was _struggling _to get the words out. Now she was growing concerned. She swallowed. "Squall?" she managed to squeak out.

"I'm not ready," he finally tumbled out.

"What?"

He pressed his lips together in a tight line as he tried to get the rest out. With each passing second his frown deepened, the creases between his brows becoming more pronounced. "I'm not ready," he said again. "I don't know if I ever will be, but…if you want to go through with this, then I'm here with you."

Rinoa sat up fully. "What do you mean if I want to go through with this?" she asked. "I already told you that I know where I stand with you—I am yours, Squall, just like you are mine." Her throat tightened as she feared that he was beginning to back track into his commitment phobia that he still had yet to fully explain. "I…I thought we already established this? Are you saying you want an open relationship now?" Immediately her mind snapped towards Fujin and her wickedly swaying hips and then Kendra with her dazzling smile and shooting star tattoo that matched but did not _match_ Squall's.

Then Squall looked her in the eyes, his face twisted in confusion. "What the fuck—?" he muttered. "What are you talking about?"

Rinoa scowled. "What are _you _talking about?" she cried.

"I'm talking about the baby!" he barked.

Rinoa just blinked at him. "What baby?"

Now he just stared at her, his eyes searching hers for a good minute before he slowly sat up. He folded his legs across the mattress so he sat cross-legged beside her. His palms rested on his knees but his fingernails dug into his jeans so hard that his knuckles turned white. "Aren't you pregnant?"

Rinoa's eyes bulged and she nearly laughed. "What? No! What gave you that idea?"

"You made a point not to drink last night and I found your pregnancy test," he said, speaking slowly as he tried to remain calm.

"I wasn't drinking because I'm expecting my period soon and felt bloated as all hell so I didn't want to drink beer and feel like a giant balloon," she explained. "And what pregnancy test—oh." Her mouth slammed shut and her throat muscles jerked as she realized the damn thing was still in her trash. _Fuck,_ she thought. _Fuck, fuck, fuck. This is bad. _"Um…shit, you weren't supposed to see that…" She felt her cheeks warm when she felt Squall's scrutinizing gaze upon her.

His fingers relaxed but his body was still tense and his eyes burned as they searched her. "Then whose test was it?"

"I can't tell you."

"Rinoa."

"It's not your business!"

"Then why was it in _your_ trash can?" he demanded.

Rinoa shut her eyes and rubbed her temples. "Because she didn't want to be alone!" she yelled. "She's gone through enough as it is!"

Squall's eyes widened. "No…" he whispered.

A thick cloud of tense and awkward silence bloomed around them. Rinoa covered her mouth and softly shook her head. "You can't say anything," she said. She lifted her gaze at him and grimaced at the look on his face. "You can't, Squall!"

"He doesn't even know!" Squall argued. If Irvine had had _any_ inkling of the fact that Selphie was pregnant, Squall would have been the first—or at the very least, second—to know about it.

"You can't tell him! It's not your place, Squall, just leave it alone!"

"Well she needs to hurry up and fucking tell him, we're leaving in a few days," he declared.

Rinoa sighed and chewed on her thumb. "She's not even sure if she's going to keep it anyway," she said solemnly.

Squall recoiled. "What?"

"Oh, come on!" Rinoa cried. "You think it's fair to make her keep the baby? After what she's gone through? You want her to have a permanent tie to him?"

"It's not just _her_ baby," he snapped. "He's the father—he has a say in it."

"Ultimately it is _their_ choice, yes, I see what you're saying but…she doesn't know if she's going to tell him yet." She winced at the look of absolute horror on his face. "Squall, they're not together anymore…they have their own shit to figure out with their relationship. A baby…?" She exhaled and rubbed her chin. "It's not fair to either of them _or_ the baby to stay together or separate or whatever they decide _solely_ because she's pregnant!"

He just shook his head as he listened to her. "He needs to know, Rinoa. That's his kid."

"Oh, so he's going to quit the band so he can raise it? You know he couldn't do that and Selphie would never _ask_ him to! She's gonna end up taking care of the kid all by herself. Is that what you want her to do? _That's_ the life you want her and the baby to have?" She firmly grasped his wrist with both of her hands. "Squall, you can't tell Irvine." When he didn't say anything she tightened her grip. "You _can't_," she pleaded.

They sat in silence for a few moments, neither of them breaking eye contact with the other. When Squall noticed the tears threatening to spill at the corner of Rinoa's eyes, he took a deep breath. "If she doesn't tell him before we get ready to leave, I'm telling him," he confirmed. At Rinoa's disgruntled sigh, he added: "He's my best friend, I can't keep this from him."

"And Selphie's _my_ best friend," Rinoa shot back.

"Understandable," Squall said. "But here's the thing, it's not about Irvine or Selphie anymore, it's about the baby that they unwittingly created. Whether they go forward with the pregnancy or not it is a decision that is to be made between them—_both _of them—and _only_ them."

Rinoa released his wrist and started to crawl off the bed.

"We're not done talking," Squall growled.

Rinoa shot him a look. "I think this conversation that is to be between Selphie and Irvine has most definitely run its course," she snapped.

Ignoring the remark, Squall simply looked at her. "What if it were you and I?"

Rinoa stilled. Her body froze with one leg thrown over the side of the bed while she was twisted at the waist to face him. "You can't ask me that," she whispered. "Do _not_ ask me that."

"Why not?"

"Because!" she exclaimed. "I don't have an answer for you!" She exhaled a shaky breath and bit into her bottom lip. "You yourself just said that you weren't ready and that you weren't sure if you ever would be ready. What if I told you that I felt the same way? Being a mother was something I never really gave much thought. I mean…yes, I see a future with you—don't get me wrong—but I'm definitely not thinking about _children._"

Squall looked as if he were about to say something, but his lips remained tightly shut, which made Rinoa angrier so she just started spouting the first thoughts that came to mind.

"You cannot be angry with me over this topic," she said. "You don't even have the balls to call me your girlfriend so what the hell makes you think I want to talk kids with you?" She didn't immediately regret saying it, not entirely, but when she saw the minute change in Squall's expression she wanted to take it back. "I'm sorry," she whispered. "I'm…I shouldn't have said that."

Squall shook his head. "No," he murmured. "If it's how you really feel you shouldn't apologize, nor should you feel that you can't tell me how you feel."

Rinoa was still annoyed. "How about you tell me how you really feel?" she dared. "I'm not saying for you to go atop a mountain and shout at the top of your lungs that you're seeing me, but telling someone you're hanging out with 'just a friend?' Sorry, but that's just a tad insulting."

"And what do you call me?"

That caused her to still. Inwardly her mind raced as she tried to think. When it came to talking about Squall with Caraway, he tended to just say Squall's name. Zone and Watts would tease and say 'boyfriend' or at the very least call Squall her own personal 'rock star.' There was really no one else that Rinoa would actually converse with when it came to Squall. _Fuck…_she thought. "Everyone I come into contact with on a daily pretty much already know who you are. So they just know you as Squall," she muttered.

"And everyone who is important to me know you as Rinoa. They have heard your name. You want me to tell my old boss who you are and what you mean to me? Fine. I'll be sure to do that the next time I see her. However, understand that I don't have any plans to see her in the near future and I didn't find it necessary to explain my life story at that moment." When Rinoa didn't say anything he stood from the bed and took her hands into his. "All that matters to me is that _you_ know where you stand with me. I couldn't give a fuck less what other people think. I don't want you to have any doubt."

Rinoa swallowed as she listened. Her lashes lowered and she slowly bit down into her bottom lip.

Squall stiffened. "But you do have doubts," he concluded lowly.

She made a sound in her throat as she tried to figure out her words. "It's not entirely doubt, Squall," she said. "I mean…I know where I stand with you, like I said before. You are mine and I am yours _but_ I still don't quite understand why you have an issue with letting other people know. It's not like we're having this big secret relationship but at the same time I feel like you're hiding me." A buzzing came from her phone still resting on the bed. Rinoa growled and took a quick glance at her clock. "Ok, you need to go," she said quickly.

"Are you fucking kidding me?" Squall snapped, taking a step back.

She whirled around. "Ah! Not like that!" she yelled. "I'm not kicking you out I just—ugh!" Rinoa clamored through her junk drawer and pulled out her spare key. "Look, Selphie's on her way here. We're going to the doctor's." When she saw Squall open his mouth to speak, she held up her hand. "She hasn't even been to the doctor's yet for a test. Even though we know she's pregnant—we've taken the tests—she still has to go to the doctor to confirm that she's pregnant and how far along she is." And, Rinoa didn't add, to get a referral on where to get an abortion, if Selphie decided that was what she wanted. "If she finds out that you figured out that she's pregnant it may freak her out. So…here's my spare key. Her appointment's at two and she's gonna drop me off afterwards." She pulled on a pair of clean shorts and brushed at her hair with her fingers. "Just take my key in case you need to go out while I'm gone. I'm not sure how long I'll be."

Squall let out a sigh and shoved the key into his pocket. "Alright."

Rinoa was about to turn away and head for her shoes when Squall grabbed her arm and pulled her into his chest. His lips pressed heavily against her forehead. "We ok?" he asked.

Rinoa lifted her head and playfully bit his lower lip, earning a pained grunt from him. "Yeah," she said tightly with a smirk. "We're ok."

* * *

"Fill out these forms and return them when you're done," said the nurse at the counter, taking Selphie's drivers license and insurance cards. "I'll be right back with these after I make a copy."

"Ok. Thank you." Selphie skimmed over the questionnaire and gave Rinoa a disheartened look. "I hate these things," she muttered softly, sitting down and scribbling her name.

As Selphie focused on filling out the paperwork, Rinoa glanced around at the other patients in the room. Across from them was a woman in her thirties, reading a book and caressing her very large and round belly. At the end of the waiting room was a young woman with a belly that appeared to have just 'popped' and her mother sitting beside her.

Rinoa's ears perked up as she heard the door open. A nurse was escorting out a young couple with smiles brimming ear to ear as they walked hand in hand. The father laid a gentle and loving hand on the woman's bump and gave her temple a sweet kiss. Rinoa swallowed and stole a glance to Selphie, who was still very much focused on the sheet in her lap.

As they waited, Rinoa tried to think about the conversation she'd had with Squall. She felt her heart race as the emotion of annoyance and anger began to rise up again. He actually had the gall to be upset at her for not wanting to talk about the subject of kids with him when he himself couldn't put a name to their _relationship_? He was just being ridiculous, she concluded. It was far too early in their relationship to even _think_ about kids.

Beside her, Selphie's phone went off and the other girl rummaged through her purse. "Irvine just texted me," she said.

Rinoa froze. Did he know? Did Squall tell him? No…he said he would give Selphie a chance to say something first and Rinoa believed him. "And?" Rinoa asked, trying hard to sound casual.

"Squall was right, he's asking me to dinner later."

* * *

"What's up with you?" Irvine asked, watching as Squall pulled out another cigarette.

"Nothing," he said back in a clipped voice. "Why?" He leaned back against the lawn chair and flicked his thumb over the lighter.

Irvine shrugged. "That's…what? Your fourth cigarette? You've only been here forty minutes." When Squall paused in his actions Irvine laughed. _"Something_ has you pissed."

With a grimace Squall forced himself to put back the cigarette. "Just annoyed," he said.

"About what?"

"Nothing. Nothing important."

Irvine's phone chirped, granting Squall a reprieve and he nodded his chin. "Looks like Selphie's responded." He watched as Irvine cautiously picked up the phone and slid his thumb across the screen. As Irvine's face shifted into a slow and comfortable smile, Squall relaxed. "Good news I take it?"

Irvine tapped a quick message and placed the phone back onto the table. "I'm taking her to her favorite place, Diablos."

"Good choice."

"And then I'm just going to crawl on my belly over glass and beg for her forgiveness."

Squall shook his cigarette pack as if he were raising a glass. "Cheers to that. Good luck."

"She says she's running some errands but will meet me at Diablos around five." Irvine sighed and slid the phone back into his pocket. "Do me a solid?"

Unable to hold back any longer, Squall reached for his cigarettes and lit one up. "You want me to go with you," he said lowly. Squall let out a stream of smoke and nodded his head. "I'll have a drink with you until she shows up," he agreed. "The moment she walks through those doors though? I'm out. You two have _a lot _to talk about and I am not about to be a part of that."

Irvine chuckled and slung a soft punch to Squall's bicep. "Thanks brother."

* * *

"_That's_ it?" Selphie gasped, staring open-mouthed at the screen in front of her.

Rinoa managed to hold back her laughter. The nurse sitting beside Selphie let out a sputtering giggle and nodded her head as she slowly moved the transducer over Selphie's abdomen. "That's a very common reaction," the nurse said. "After taking in your menstrual cycle and looking at the sonogram, I think it's safe to say you're roughly seven weeks."

"It's…_tiny._" Selphie cocked her head, her lip upturned into a little scowl as she stared at the screen. "I mean, I wasn't expecting to see a full blown face or anything because I know I'm not too far along but…" She held up her hands and pointed. "It's just a little black bean!"

The nurse smiled and stood to her feet. "Now, I know you mentioned over the phone that you had questions about termination."

Selphie thinned her lips, lowering her eyes as the screen shut off. "Yeah."

"The sooner we do it the better. And safer for you," said the nurse. "I'll have some referrals printed up and we can have it done before next week is over." The nurse looked at Selphie and her face softened when she saw that the brunette's eyes were fighting back tears. "Take your time," she said softly. "If you need to take the day to think about it, do it. You don't need to make a decision right this minute." She gave Selphie's hand a tender squeeze and exited.

Rinoa climbed to Selphie's side and kissed her temple. "You ok?"

Selphie let out a wail and clasped her hands over her face. "No! Oh fuckin' hell…what am I doing?" she groaned. She looked over to Rinoa. "What would you do?"

Rinoa shot her a look. "Oh hell no. Nope. Not going there." She stepped away from Selphie and absently walked over to the monitor where the little black bean had been. "Look, whatever decision you make I will love and support you regardless." With a smile she turned and faced Selphie. "I honestly believe that your decision will be the right choice."

The tears that had threatened to fall were now gone without a trace. A small, sweetly tinged smile brightened upon Selphie's lips. "Woman, I love you. So. Damn. Much."

Rinoa giggled and crossed over to wrap her arms around her, planting a kiss to Selphie's forehead. "And I love you."

"Will you be my boyfriend?"

Rinoa let out a laugh. "I would _love_ to be. But unfortunately I don't swing that way babe."

Selphie pouted and smacked Rinoa on the ass as she pulled away to readjust her shirt. "Killjoy."

* * *

As they drove away from the doctor's office, Rinoa thought back to her conversation with Squall. Something he had said was starting to worm its way into her mind. It had blown right past her when he had said it. She was too focused at first in thinking that he was talking about something else. Then the topic completely harpooned into another direction that didn't even involve _them._

_"__I'm not ready. I don't know if I ever will be, but…if you want to go through with this, then I'm here with you."_

That was what he had said to her. Rinoa felt her stomach drop as if it were suddenly filled with lead. _Holy shit,_ she thought. _Ohmygod. He thought I was pregnant. He thought I was pregnant and said he would be there for me through it all. And I shit on him for not having the balls to call me his girlfriend!_

"I'm going to see him later tonight," Selphie said, pushing on the breaks so they came to a complete stop at the intersection and snatching Rinoa away from her inner turmoil. Selphie's eyes stayed on the red light as she told Rinoa that she and Irvine planned on meeting at Diablo's Steakhouse for dinner and their discussion.

"Are you going to tell him?" Rinoa asked, running her fingers through her hair and sighing as she watched the cars drive past them. While she was very much interested in Selphie's addition to the conversation, her mind was still reeling about her revelation of Squall's words. "About the baby?"

Selphie squirmed in her seat. "I…I don't know yet. I feel like I should. I should, huh? It's the right thing to do."

"Have you decided what you're going to do?"

The light turned green and Selphie slowly started to accelerate. "Yeah. I think I do." She glanced over to Rinoa for a brief second. "I'm—"

Rinoa never heard her answer. Another car running the adjacent red light slammed into Selphie's car. All that filled Rinoa's head was the sound of Selphie screaming and the grinding sounds of metal and broken glass.


	34. Chapter 34

**A/N: Hello everyone! Thank you for the reviews and new alerts/followers! xoxox**

* * *

Irvine glanced down at his watch. Again. He let out a sigh and looked up to see Squall lazily drum his fingers atop the bar counter. "Try calling her again," Squall said.

"It just goes straight to voicemail," Irvine grumbled. "She's never this late." He leaned against the bar, his chin cupped by his palm. "Thanks for staying with me though," he said. "You didn't have to."

"Of course."

The bartender approached them with a polite nod. "Still waiting fellas?" When Squall nodded the bartender pointed to their glasses. "Want a refill?"

"Uh…no, I think I'm ok for now. Squall?"

"I'm alright, thank you." He looked down at what was left of his beer and drummed his fingers against the glass. "Call her again."

"I don't know man…she has been avoiding me this whole time. Maybe I should just let it go."

"Say that shit again and I will jam this glass down your fucking throat."

Irvine's face shifted into a scowl and for a moment Squall thought that he would throw the cell phone at him. "Fuckin—What the hell man? I fucked up! I made a mistake, told her about it, and she dumped me. She's been avoiding my phone calls, barely answered any of my texts during the last bits of the tour…I was surprised as hell that she agreed to meet me today." He let out a long and defeated sigh before placing his elbows atop the counter, his hands scratching through his hair. "Maybe she got some sense knocked into her and saw that I'm shit. She deserves better. Maybe this is the sign I've been waiting for."

"What sign?"

"To let her go."

Squall kept his mouth clenched so tightly that his jaw started to hurt. He wanted to tell Irvine about the phone call with Selphie this morning, tell him that she was a bit upset thinking that he had flaked on her, but instead he stayed quiet. After a few minutes of silence, Squall finally said, "Call her again."

Irvine wasn't even able to pick up his phone. It started ringing.

"That her?"

"No, that's not her ringtone," Irvine said. His ringtone for Selphie was ACDC's "Shook me all Night Long," and the tone that was currently playing was Ozzy's "Crazy Train." Irvine frowned at the unknown number that flashed across the screen. "Hello?"

"Is this Irvine Kinneas?"

"Speaking?"

"Hi, this is Xu Rivers from Lady Adel's Memorial Hospital, you are an emergency contact of Selphie Tilmitt, correct?"

Irvine froze and glanced over to Squall. "Uh…yeah. Her parents moved to Trabia about a year ago…why? She's at the hospital?"

Squall's gaze shot into Irvine's direction and he frowned in confusion.

"Miss Tilmitt was in a car accident earlier today…"

"_What?_" he gasped, standing so suddenly that his bar stool circled and wobbled behind him, nearly crashing over.

"She's ok! She's ok Mr. Kinneas, she's not entirely ready to go home yet but we are required to alert her contact. Eventually she will need a ride home, the person she was with is not in condition to drive either."

Irvine's nails dug into the collar of his shirt. "Who was she with?"

"Rinoa Heartilly, we're trying to contact her father at the moment but you answered your phone first."

"We'll be there." He hung up and jutted his chin towards Squall. "Selphie and Rinoa were in a car accident."

Squall felt his entire body freeze up and Irvine quickly gripped his arm. "They're fine. But Rinoa's dad isn't answering his phone so they called me."

"Caraway's out of town for a training retreat," Squall answered, throwing down some cash onto the bar and following Irvine out the door.

* * *

The whole drive over Squall felt his body tense with every passing minute. His fists were tightly clenched, he had broken two cigarettes within his grip. It spoke volumes about how stressed Irvine was, he didn't even argue or protest when Squall lit up. He half expected Irvine to bum one himself.

"Fuckin' shit," Irvine finally said aloud, murmuring and muttering as if he were speaking to himself. "A car accident…a fucking car accident. So bad to the point that she can't drive…"

"Irvine. Shut up."

"How bad must it have been that she had to go to the _hospital?_"

Squall shut his eyes, his finger gripped the base of the cigarette and he felt the ashed tip crumble and fall onto his knuckles. "Shut up."

"But what if—"

"_Irvine! _Shut the fuck up and just fucking _drive._" Squall didn't think Irvine was in the best state of mind to drive them to the hospital, but the cowboy refused Squall's offer to take his Jeep. Irvine suggested that Squall follow him, to which Squall responded that he would rather pay the extra in cab fare back to Diablo's for his Jeep to make sure that Irvine was keeping his head the whole drive. Couldn't do that if they somehow got separated by a traffic light, could he?

Irvine barely put the car into park when he pulled into the visitor's lot of the hospital.

"Goddammit—Irvine!" Squall shouted, maneuvering himself so he parked the SUV and pushed the parking break. Grabbing the keys from the ignition, Squall raced after him.

Irvine was panting when he reached the information desk. "Yes, we're here to pick up my girl—um…" Irvine shook his head. "Selphie Tilmitt? She and her friend Rinoa Heartilly were in a car accident earlier."

The woman behind the counter went through the logs and nodded when she came across the names. "Yes, they're sharing a room. Upstairs on the seventh level in room number…" She squinted as she peered at the computer screen. "Room number 5388." She peeled off two visitor's stickers and handed them over. "Sign in here," she said, sliding a clipboard towards Squall.

"Thanks." He scribbled in his and Irvine's names and sent it back. "Come on." He slapped the sticker onto his chest and shoved Irvine towards the elevators.

Squall clenched his jaw as they crossed through the hall. Even though he had previously worked in the hospital, he could never get used to the smell. The wing where he had worked was away from the emergency section, away from the jarring scent of antiseptic and bleach.

The first half of the ward they walked by had open rooms with no doors, only curtains in place for privacy. He steeled himself as he walked by the sounds of terrified moans and whimpers of pain of patients waiting to be seen. Beside him he could feel Irvine's anxiety heighten, dampening the air around him like a drenched towel.

"What if—"

"Keep walking," Squall barked.

In the elevator, Irvine stared at his shoes. "That's blood," he whispered.

Squall followed his gaze and landed upon a small blood stain, a droplet of red that was barely even a half inch in diameter. "It's nothing," Squall said.

"That is blood."

"Irvine. We're in a hospital. There's going to be blood. Don't touch it."

The doors opened and Squall ushered him through to the 5300 hallway. As they came upon the door to room 5388 Squall hesitated. He hadn't heard any information about the state of the girls other than they were in a car accident earlier. Clearly if there had been any surgery involved it would have already ended since they were in a room. He had no idea what awaited him behind the door. Only that on the other side was Rinoa. And she was in pain.

He really, really did not like that.

When Squall saw Rinoa sitting in the hospital bed, he felt his heart stop. Around her head was a gauze bandage with a little spot of red seeping through. She turned to him, and he could see the beginnings of bruises forming above her right eyebrow and the bandaid upon her cheek.

"Rinoa," he gasped, crossing the distance of the room in quick strides. He wanted to pick her up into his arms, wanted to hold her tight against his chest to prove to himself that she was there in front of him, but when he saw her wincing in pain just to stand to her feet, he restrained himself. His fingers were outstretched for her but he kept his distance.

"I'm ok," she whispered, her voice hoarse. "I'm sure I look worse than I feel, promise. I'm ok." She tried to lift her arms to hug him but cried out and nearly folded into herself. "Shit," she hissed.

Squall carefully held her by the shoulders and leaned her into his chest.

"What happened?" Irvine asked, the words hardly able to come out as he watched her struggle to stand. "Where's Selphie?"

"They…they just took her away," Rinoa answered. "About ten minutes ago."

"To where?"

Rinoa paused, grimacing as she tried to form her words. "They just wanted to check something. She was having cramps."

"What happened?" Squall asked her.

"We were leaving…we were running errands," she corrected. "We were at a red light. Light turned green so Selphie started to go. Some asswipe ran the red light and slammed into us and made us crash headfirst into the hood of the car on the other side of the intersection."

Squall tenderly ran his fingers over the bruises along her brow, his graze so gentle that Rinoa wasn't even sure that he was touching her. "Window?" he asked her.

"Hm? Oh. Yeah. The impact caused me to jerk this way and then get thrown against the window." She held up her arms to show him the forming bruises along her forearms. "I managed to get these up before we crashed into the other car so my face wouldn't go into the dashboard."

A knock came at the door and a doctor gingerly poked his head in. "Hello," he said. "I'm Doctor Craven. Are you here to pick up these ladies?"

"Yes, where's Selphie Tilmitt?" Irvine asked.

"Miss Tilmitt will be back shortly," said Craven, who was now approaching Rinoa to check her bandages. "She was complaining of cramps because she got hit in the abdomen with the steering wheel. We're running an emergency ultrasound on her right now."

"Oh." Irvine nodded slowly and let out a slow breath. "To…what? Check for internal bleeding?"

Craven nodded. He gently rewrapped the bandage around Rinoa's head. "How're you feeling?"

"I'm ok. How are the other people?"

"They're just fine Miss Heartilly, you and Miss Tilmitt got the worst of it sadly. The driver of the third car has already been discharged and the driver who hit you is still making their statement. I apologize if nurse Xu's phone call has left you shaken, we just wanted to make sure these girls had a proper ride home when it was time for discharge," Craven said to Irvine. "The girls are just about home free but we thought it best to run an ultrasound to check on the status of the baby."

Irvine's head jerked, his blue eyes widened, and Squall could see the color drain from the cowboy's face.

"The…what?" Irvine gasped. Before the doctor could open his mouth to respond, Irvine turned to Rinoa, his eyes large and glassy as his mind tried to comprehend this new information. "Rinoa…she's pregnant?"

Rinoa shied away from him, half hiding behind Squall's body. "I…" she whispered, her voice trembling. "I…" The words that came from her were nothing more than crackling sounds of syllables that hardly made sense.

Squall stepped forward and hooked her behind him. "Selphie's pregnant, Irvine," he said.

"She's about seven weeks," Rinoa said quietly.

As the wheels started turning, Irvine slowly blinked. "Seven…but we've been gone five…"

"No!" Rinoa cried, instantly wincing when the sudden outburst caused her ribs to throb. "They start counting the week of her last period." Rinoa groaned and leaned against Squall when he reached behind him to place a hand around her back. "Don't ever think that of her…you were her everything!"

Irvine swallowed and looked back to the doctor.

Craven's jaw was set and his eyes darkened as he realized his mistake. "I'm so sorry," he whispered to Rinoa. "I thought…I thought that it was common knowledge." He looked back over to Irvine and nervously swallowed. "When the girls were brought in the first thing that Miss Tilmitt mentioned—quite strongly, in fact—was that she was pregnant."

"She's been refusing pain meds because she doesn't want it to affect the baby," Rinoa said softly, hardly able to meet Irvine's gaze.

"I'm so sorry," Craven said again. "I…I'm going to check on Selphie. I'll be back in just a moment."

After the doctor closed the door behind him, the room was filled with that sickening thick and tense silence. Rinoa kept her eyes glued to the floor, her fingertips tightly gripping the hem of Squall's shirt.

"A baby?" Irvine whispered finally. "A _baby? _What…I…the fuck…?" Irvine clutched his temples and wavered a step. "Squall…I can't be a father."

Rinoa was about to speak, or yell, or scream, or punch Irvine, she wasn't entirely sure what she wanted to do in that split moment because Squall cut in front of her.

"Yes, you can," he said, his voice rough.

Irvine shook his head, his eyes large and watery as his body trembled. "I'm no father! I don't know the first thing about how to _be_ a father. My old man…all I learned from him was how to abandon a child—not fucking raise it! I can't—"

Rinoa stilled, she didn't know anything about Irvine's past, she hardly even knew about Squall's. She had no idea about Irvine's home life or if even such a life existed. She only knew that Selphie's parents had moved to Trabia a few years after Selphie went to college.

Before Rinoa could even put together a thought, Squall gripped Irvine around the collar and slammed him against the wall, causing Rinoa to jump in panic. "Squall!" she gasped, unsure of the scene unfolding before her. She thought about how he had punched Irvine the night of the infidelity…what would he do now?

"Don't fucking say that," Squall growled through clenched teeth. "Man the fuck up and be a father or at the very least be more of a man than your dad. Just because your old man was a piece of shit doesn't mean you have to follow in his footsteps."

Tears sprang to Irvine's eyes and his face contorted into a pained scowl. "I'll fuck it up," he whispered.

"You won't," Squall protested. "Because I'll be there. Zell will be there. Even though you feel that you won't be much of a father, Zell and I will gladly pick up any slack." Squall let go and watched as Irvine stumbled backwards into the visitor's chair. "I'm sure fatherhood isn't for everyone," he said. "But what if I told you that Selphie was planning on getting an abortion?"

"Squall—!" Rinoa shouted.

Irvine's face of pure horror prevented her from saying anything else. His reaction nearly broke her heart. She saw what Squall had intended. Even though Irvine was terrified of being a father after finding out that he was unexpectedly going to become one, he was more terrified at the thought of losing his child.

Irvine quickly glanced away. "Fuck…don't tell me that, man. I mean…it's her body, I will not tell her what to do." Despite his strong statement, Irvine's voice shook and he was hardly able to tear his gaze away from the ground.

"If she keeps it what are you going to do?" Squall demanded.

Rinoa squeezed her eyes shut and pressed her forehead into Squall's spine, her fingers clenching at his shirt as she tried to hold in a wail. _Oh Selphie…_ she thought. _I'm sorry, I'm so sorry._

The door clicked open and Selphie was rolled in on a wheelchair by Dr. Craven. Her eyes immediate sought out Irvine and she tightened her lips. Irvine shot to his feet, his jaw aghast as he took in the sight of her. Her left arm was in a sling, a gauze square was taped to her left cheek, and her legs were covered in splotches of red and purple.

"Selphie…" he whispered.

She managed a slight smile. "Not broken," she said, gingerly lifting her arm in the sling that Irvine was currently staring at. "Sprained, but not broken." She took in a deep breath and looked over to Rinoa. "Go ahead and go home," she said.

"You sure?"

"Yeah." Selphie grimaced and made a move to stand from the chair. Irvine immediately came to her side and helped her up. "We…have a lot to talk about," she said quietly, speaking into his chest as she curled her fingers into his shirt.

"Yes, we do."

Selphie looked back to Rinoa and gave her a nod as well as an attempt at an assuring smile. "Rin, go home. Please."

"Selphie—"

Selphie groaned and aimed her gaze at Squall. "Squall," she muttered forcefully. "Get her home. Now."

"Will do." Squall gave Selphie a salute and gently took Rinoa by the shoulders. "Let's go."

Rinoa hesitated, resisting against Squall's pull as she glanced back and forth between the two ahead of her. "Wait…but Selphie—"

Squall leaned in closely to her ear. "I _will _carry you out of here," he said through clenched teeth. "This doesn't concern you. Let's go." He gave Doctor Craven a nod of farewell and ushered Rinoa towards the door. Completely ignoring her heated glare that was attempting to melt through his head, he pulled out his phone and dialed a cab.

"Where's your car?" she asked.

"Diablo's."

* * *

After retrieving his car Squall took Rinoa home. As he escorted her up the steps he wondered if she should pack a bag and stay at his place or if he should just stay there. Either way, he wasn't leaving her side, whether she liked it or not. He knew she was upset at him for spilling Selphie's secret, and it wasn't that he didn't care that she was angry at him, instead he had more important things to focus on.

Rinoa hardly said a word to him the entire drive home. She sat quietly in her seat and gazed out the window while Squall was forced into small talk with the cab driver. His Jeep became a quiet place of asylum on the drive to Rinoa's apartment.

At the top of the landing, Squall fished Rinoa's spare key from his pocket and walked her inside. "Are you hungry?" he asked her, maneuvering through the dark apartment with ease. Once he reached the kitchen he flicked on the light and looked at her.

She was pale. Around her eyes were dark shadows and the bruises along her face started to grow and form, exposing the point of impact of the window. It was then he was reminded of how small she truly was. She was fierce, she talked big, and she could certainly hold her own…but she was still human, still incredibly mortal. She was watching him, her body slightly shaking as her eyes started to grow glassy.

"Rinoa?" he whispered.

"My…my mom died in a car accident," she gasped.

He felt a pain in his chest. An ache that vibrated across his body at the sight of her, the terror in her voice, and the tears in her eyes that she was so strongly willing to keep in place. "Rinoa," he said again.

"As we crashed into the third car everything went black for a moment," she was saying, her eyes no longer looking at him but rather trailing off into the distance as she remembered. "I…I thought of her at that moment when I came to. How did she feel? How did…"

Squall was suddenly in front of her, his arms pulling her into his chest so that he practically engulfed her. His hand came over the back of her head, cradling her as she finally let the tears loose. He shut his eyes, squeezing them tight as she shuddered against him, her wails ringing in his ears. She had mentioned before that her mother had passed away due to a traffic collision, but she never said further than that. He had no idea if she was the one driving or if Rinoa's father was also in the car. Inwardly he winced. This woman meant so much to him and yet they were still getting to know each other and the secrets of their respective pasts. The last few months had been a whirlwind and he felt as if he had known her forever…and yet he felt he didn't know her at all. All he knew was that he was crazy about her and it tore his heart to pieces to hear her cry or be in pain.

"I'm sorry," she whispered, sniffling and wiping at her face.

"Don't be," he murmured against her hair, keeping his embrace tightly around her. "You were terrified."

Rinoa took a deep breath and moved her arms so that they encircled his neck. She leaned her forehead against his chest and bit back a groan of pain at the movement.

Squall swallowed and carefully detached himself from her hold. His palm came over her cheek and he gently brushed his thumb over her lower lip. "You're ok," he told her quietly. "You're both ok."

"But the baby—"

"It doesn't concern us," he cut in. Gently he shushed her when her brows knit into a frown and her mouth dropped open to argue. "That's all Selphie and Irvine. I hope the baby's ok but…that's between them. With that topic we're just going to have to take it day by day. We don't know what's going to happen tomorrow, what their decision will be, or if they'll even have a chance to make a decision. Right now?" He brushed black strands from her face and leaned in to kiss her forehead. "Right now let me just focus on taking care of you. That's all that concerns me at the moment."

Before she could speak he reached down and swept her into his arms and carried her towards the bathroom. Gently he set her down and lowered himself into a crouch as he turned the knobs of the tub. "Your muscles are going to be incredibly sore tomorrow from the impact," he said. "Do you have any Epsom salts or anything?"

"Yeah, under the sink."

He filled the tub with warm water and tossed in a few handfuls of salt.

"Can you make the water hotter?" she asked, dipping her hand beneath the faucet.

"You don't want it too hot," he said. "It may feel good while you're in it but tomorrow you'll be feeling it even more. Hot water can cause inflammatory…"

"Got it," she said, waving his words away. "You don't need to use your fancy physical therapist know it all jargon with me." She smiled and leaned in to give a kiss to his chin. "I trust you."

Squall helped her remove her clothes, carefully as she started to wince from lifting her arms too high. As she settled herself into the water he undressed and was soon nestled in the tub behind her.

The water came over them and Squall leaned back against the tub wall, maneuvering himself so Rinoa lay against his chest. "Are you comfortable?" he asked.

"Yeah. Just waiting for the water to get a little higher." She raised her foot so that it rested beneath the faucet. Slowly she wriggled her toes and let out a soft breath as the water spilled over her foot. "Can I just turn it a little warmer? I won't make it too hot."

"Leave it," he ordered. "Any warmer and you will regret it in the morning."

Rinoa made a small grunt within her throat and leaned back so her head tilted back to look at him. "One of these days I will have my dream bathtub," she murmured. "It will be long and deep enough so that the water covers my knees and boobs at the same time."

Squall chuckled and shook his head as he watched her squirm beneath the water in an attempt to get as much of her body covered as possible. "You want an indoor Jacuzzi," he said.

"Yes." Rinoa nodded and then lifted her foot to turn the knob off. "That would be ideal."

Squall reached over her head and grabbed her loofah. Gently he started to rub it down the length of her arm, his thumb massaging over her palm.

"I am capable of washing myself," she grumbled, watching as he continuously dipped the loofah into the water to scrub along her arms and shoulders.

He responded with a slight grab to her stomach, subtle so as not to hurt her, but enough so that she squealed out in laughter. "Shut up and let me take care of you," he snarled, trailing the loofah back down the length of her right arm.

Rinoa pouted but leaned against his chest. She sighed and closed her eyes, relishing the feel of the warm water bobbing across her skin while Squall ran his hands over her body. Meekly she raised her hand and moved it along his arm so that their fingers entwined. "Squall?"

The tiny break in her voice hurt his heart. Her tiny fingers grasped his hand so desperately that her nails dug into his skin. He clenched his jaw and quietly waited for her to continue.

"You know how you asked what if it were us?"

Slowly he nodded.

"I…I would tell you," she whispered. "Even though I've never seen myself as a mother—and I still don't—I agree with you in that I should include you in the discussion."

With a sigh Squall turned her around onto her side and gently cupped her chin. "I would never tell you what to do with your body," he said softly, his lips grazing her forehead. "Ever. _But_…if we were ever in that situation I want you to be able to tell me."

"I would," she gasped. "I promise."

* * *

The next morning Squall was busy in the kitchen making Rinoa breakfast while she sat at the couch, obsessively looking at her phone. She had sent Selphie a text nearly an hour before and had yet to hear back from her. Granted, it was still considered fairly early—just after nine—but Rinoa found that she couldn't sleep and dragged herself out of bed. Unfortunately whip lash had hit her hard, and she practically crumpled to the floor in shock at the stiffness of her muscles, rousing Squall from his sleep. Instead of listening to her swear that she was fine, he got out of bed with her and forced her onto the couch to take it easy.

While Rinoa thought that it was very sweet that he insisted on taking care of her, she did not care for being treated like a child. When she loudly vocalized her opinion on the subject, Squall leaned in over her, his arms pinned into the couch's back on either side of her. "I am not treating you like a child," he said lowly through clenched teeth. "I am treating you like a woman who was just in a traumatic car accident. You're lucky you didn't have a concussion with how hard you hit your face against the window. Your body is sore. Your head is killing you. You can barely stand upright your muscles are so tight. Am I wrong?"

Rinoa scrunched her face at him but shook her head and admitted defeat. "I don't like being babied," she muttered, hardly able to look him in the eye.

"I'm not cutting up your damn food for you," he growled, his hand reaching up to firmly cup her cheek. "I am simply making you breakfast while you chill. _How _is that babying you?"

Dammit, she didn't have an answer.

A knock came at the door and Squall retracted to open it. Rinoa's teeth sank down into her lower lip. The heat from Squall's hand on her cheek was instantly missed.

Quistis and Zell instantly filled the entryway, a large bouquet of multicolored roses in Zell's arms. "Rinoa!" Quistis gasped, hurrying over to the couch where Rinoa sat. "Holy shit—I'm so glad you're ok! How do you feel?"

"I'm ok," she said softly. "Just really sore. And…a little cranky." She glanced over to Squall by way of apology, but he was in the kitchen with Zell, his back to her. "Did Squall call you?"

"Yeah, he called Zell last night. I think you might have been sleeping already. Then he texted Zell this morning when you guys woke up. Zell and I were at the gym so after we got cleaned up we came over." Quistis made a groan and carefully touched over the bruises on Rinoa's face.

Squall came by and set a plate filled with bacon, eggs, and chocolate chip muffin onto the table. Zell came in behind him and set down two full coffee mugs. "For the ladies," said Zell. He stepped in and gave Rinoa a brief hug. "Glad to see you're alright," he told her. "Eat up. You can't have any of your pain meds until you have something in your stomach."

"Yes, I'm aware," Rinoa said, picking at the muffin.

Squall tapped Zell on the shoulder and motioned to the patio door. "We'll be outside," he said, leaning down and scooping up his knapsack that he had left by the coffee table the night before.

As they crossed onto the patio, Squall closed the door solidly behind them. He dug through his backpack for his cigarettes, the lighter falling out and clattering across the concrete.

Zell picked it up and tossed over the lighter. "So…you thought that was Rinoa's test?" he asked, glancing back towards the closed door and keeping his voice down.

Squall made a deep grunt in his throat, pressed the open flame to the tip of his cigarette and took a long breath before speaking. "It was in her garbage can," he said. "What else was I supposed to think?"

"Makes sense," Zell said with a shrug. "So how'd you feel about that?"

"Aside from freaking the fuck out?"

Zell laughed. "Yeah. Aside from that."

Squall remained quiet for a moment, silently sucking on his cigarette before finally reaching over and grabbing hold of his backpack. With the cigarette dangling from his lips, he reached into the pack and pulled out a black plastic bag, crumpled from its time inside. He tossed the bag over to Zell. "Bought this."

Zell opened up the bag and looked at its contents. A frown washed over his face, creases forming over his brow. "What the fuck is this?"

"I had to clear my head," Squall muttered, crushed the finished cigarette into the ashtray and pulled out another. "Ran out of smokes so I walked to the convenient store down the block from here."

Zell nodded and pulled out the item inside the bag, held it in his palm. "And you bought this because…?" he pressed.

Squall glared at Zell through the smoke. "I thought Rinoa would like it."

Zell held out the item in his hand. "You bought Rinoa—a grown ass woman—a binky." Not buying it, Zell looked from Squall's face to the binky in his hands, simply decorated, clearly more focused on practicality rather than aesthetic. How very like Squall.

"Yes."

With a scoff, Zell dropped the binky back into the bag. "Bull fucking shit," he muttered. "You didn't buy the binky for Rinoa. You bought it for the baby. The baby you thought _she _was carrying. The baby you thought was _yours._"

Squall only crossed his arms and leaned back against patio gate..

"You really don't see it, do you?"

Squall just raised a brow. "What are you talking about?"

Zell groaned and rubbed at his temples. "Kendra?" he muttered.

A shadow crossed over Squall's features and he shot Zell a heated glare. However, nearly immune to Squall's venomous looks, Zell only smirked. "When Kendra thought she was pregnant you flipped out on her."

"I did not—"

"Well ok, you didn't like _flip out on her _in the sense that you made a scene but…" Zell knocked his knuckles onto the metal gate. "You were beyond freaked the fuck out. Don't act like you don't remember."

Squall did remember. With his teeth grinding and jaw tightly set, he waited for Zell to continue.

"Kendra told you that she was nearly a week late and you said to me that that was a real eye opener because it showed you that you didn't see a future with her."

Squall grimaced and lit another cigarette. "Oh, for fuck's sake," he muttered, releasing a stream of smoke out the corner of his mouth. "When you say it like that you make it seem like I left her because she said she was pregnant." Before Zell could say anything, Squall aimed a steely glare his way. "You ever word it like that to Rinoa I will kill you."

Zell winced but let out a chuckle. "Ok, ok…bad use of verbiage." He tapped his chin as he thought. "Ok…how did you word it…when it was made known that Kendra was actually _not_ pregnant, the thought of the possibility that you would have had a permanent tie to her showed you that she was not the one you wanted to spend the rest of your life with."

"That still sounds bad."

"The entire situation itself can't be described as _good. _You cared for Kendra, definitely. Hell, maybe even loved her—who knows? But the point is that after the pregnancy scare ended and you guys went on with your relationship you realized that she was not the girl you wanted to marry, not the woman you saw as the mother of your children, and not the woman you wanted to grow old and retire with in an old log cabin in the woods."

Squall sighed and ran his fingers through his hair. "I think she felt the same way," he said. "Which is why she kept pressing me for answers about our relationship. I think she had an idea that she and I weren't forever compatible…she just wanted me to be the one to say it."

"You're probably right." Zell arched a brow as he watched Squall crush the cigarette into the ashtray and reach for another. "But…do you see where I'm going with this?"

"I'm a shitty boyfriend?" Squall muttered around the cigarette as he tried to light it, his eyes just barely glinting with humor.

"The shittiest. If I were a woman I'd stay as far away from you as physically possible. But no, I mean…with the incident that just happened with Rinoa."

Squall exhaled the smoke slowly.

"Kendra told you she thought she may be pregnant. During the few days that you two waited for her to get a doctor's appointment you realized that you were not meant for each other. It just took you over a month to act on it and end the relationship. You think that Rinoa is pregnant and what do you do?" Zell picked up the rubber binky and tapped it along the tabletop. "You go out and buy a gift for her that is specifically for a _baby._"

Squall only stared at the little object, his jaw tightly clenched.

"You're in love with her, man," Zell said, slowly leaning back against the balcony and resting his arms behind his head. A confident grin splayed across his lips. "And it scares the hell out of you."


	35. Chapter 35

**A/N: Hey my babes, sorry about the long delay. It's been a hectic few months. The biggest whirlwind, however, is that my husband and I are expecting our first baby! I will try to improve in updating but unfortunately growing a human makes me inexplicably exhausted and when I'm not at work or taking care of our dog, I'm passed out cold.**

**xoxox**

* * *

**Saturday August 4****th**

"Squall, I'm _fine,_" Rinoa said over the phone. "Please, just focus on recording. You guys were supposed to go in to the studio yesterday to practice but instead you stayed to take care of me. I can only assume that Irvine was taking care of Selphie. And Zell and Quistis were bouncing around between us to check on everyone. I know this has been a crazy few days but please, don't worry about me." She looked into the mirror as she spoke, dotting a few dabs of concealer over the bruises that remained on her flesh.

"I always worry about you," he grumbled. "Especially when you've been in a car accident."

Rinoa let out a chuckle as she could just imagine the frown forming between his brows. "Look, I feel so much better. I'm not as stiff. The bruises still hurt and are tender to the touch but I do see a splotch of yellow in there so that means they're healing."

"Alright," he finally said. "We're about ten minutes out from the studio. I'll call when we get a break."

"Take your time."

"What are your plans for the day?"

Rinoa shrugged and lowered herself into her office chair. "Editing, most likely." She inwardly groaned at the thought of her next project. Watts and Zone had booked to do a wedding the following Saturday. It was the wedding of the couple she and Zone had shot just a few months before. She was tasked with making the guestbook, which consisted of the photographs taken at the beach's boardwalk.

"How's Irvine?" she asked.

"Not saying anything," was Squall's response. Now, Rinoa wasn't entirely sure if that meant that Irvine wasn't saying anything or that Squall wasn't saying anything that he knew of.

With a sigh, Rinoa nodded and tried to wrap up the conversation. "Ok. Good luck with recording. Probably won't see you till…what, Monday?"

"Most likely Tuesday, since we started a day later than planned. Luckily Kiros is understanding with the extenuating circumstances. We'll take a break eventually. I'll text you."

"Ok." She ended the call and turned on her monitor. The screen was filled with the smiling couple. The bride, Fiona, was gazing at her groom, Jacen, with the brightest smile. The shot was taken from behind the groom, almost as if taken by a passerby, who happened to look over and see the look of adoration pouring from the bride to be.

Rinoa couldn't wait to present the couple with the guestbook.

She clicked through her online ordering form and chose the hard cover, perfectly bound so that it lay completely flat when opened, making it easier for guests to write. After a few hours of painstaking editing, she was ready to complete her order. She sent it to one of the vendors that Zone had connections with and waited for the confirmation email.

Absently she rubbed at her throat and thought about Squall. He had been so gentle and caring. Even though she said that she didn't want him babying her, she preened and felt her insides grow warm with all of his doting. He ran her baths, he cooked her meals, he even helped her wash and dry her hair because her shoulder was too sore to lift the hair dryer. "Why are you so good to me?" she murmured, running her fingers over the photograph of him that she had doodled over.

Even when he made love to her the night before, his movements were muted and his thrusts were calm, but his passion was still quite evident. She had awakened in the middle of the night, horny and more than eager. He was completely passed out beside her but when Rinoa ran her fingers over his length, relieved him of his boxers, and took him into her mouth, he stirred awake. He tried to stop her, said that he didn't want to hurt her, that he was still concerned with her healing bruises.

"I don't care," she'd told him.

When he entered her he was slow, gentle, made sure to caress her lips with soft kisses. It was a shockingly opposite sensation from their regular lovemaking. It was the sweetest emotion. It almost made her want to cry.

As she sat there, idly scrolling her social media on her phone, a knock came at her door.

It was Selphie, whom Rinoa quickly pulled inside for a hug. "How are you?" she gasped. "How's your arm? You ok?"

Selphie smiled and gently pushed her way out of Rinoa's embrace. "I'm good," she sighed. "Sore still, but I'm ok. How are you?" She reached up and gingerly touched the healing bruise by Rinoa's eye.

"Same. Sore but doing just fine."

"Good. That's good." Selphie took in a breath and walked over to the couch. "We decided to keep the baby."

Rinoa blinked. She was glad that Selphie was getting right to the point because she was _dying_ to know, but it still shocked her. "Oh! Ok." She sat down with Selphie and patiently waited.

"We talked. For a _long_ time." Selphie chuckled and massaged her temple. "He stayed at my place ever since the hospital. He told me that whatever my decision was that he would support me no matter what. When I told him that I was keeping it…he didn't even blink."

"Is that good or bad?"

Selphie shrugged her shoulders and let out another laugh. "No idea. I mean…you know that I was planning on terminating. But…" She bit down on her bottom lip and glanced away. "When that car first hit…my first thought was that I had to protect the baby. When I told Irvine that he placed a hand over my belly and said 'Because you're a mom.' And my god…" A tear rolled down her cheek. "I lost it. I just broke down." She swiped away at the tear and looked over to Rinoa. "I love him," she whispered.

"I know you do. And he loves you. He's just…an idiot."

Selphie smiled and leaned back into the couch. "That he is. I don't know how we're going to make it work but…we're gonna make it work," she said firmly.

"Are you guys back together?"

"Not officially. He stayed on the couch the first night. Last night I asked if he could sleep in the bed with me. He did but he kept his distance."

"Probably just giving you space and waiting for you to give permission."

"Not sure when I'll give it to him but…" She shrugged her shoulders again and looked over to Rinoa. "Called my parents this morning. Mom's coming out to see me next week."

Rinoa's eyes widened. "Oh? How…uh, how is she taking it?"

"Honestly? Better than I thought! She's telling me to take prenatals, stock up on folic acid…even deposited some money into my account so I could go buy the big jar of it from the vitamin shop." Selphie grinned. "I think she's a tad excited about being a grandma. She's insisted on joining me to my first doctor's appointment. Well, my first appointment since deciding to go forward with the pregnancy."

"And your dad?"

Selphie made a slight face but wiggled her fingers in a 'so-so' gesture. "He's…taking it. I'm sure he would have preferred that I got pregnant after marriage but…what can you do?" She laughed and shrugged her shoulders. "Sometimes Life doesn't go the way you thought you'd had it planned, huh?"

Rinoa shook her head. "No. Definitely not. Well, though I am a bit saddened that I no longer have a drinking buddy, can I just say that I am just a _bit _excited to go shopping for baby clothes?" Rinoa squealed and clapped her hands while Selphie started to giggle, a smile breaking into her face so wide that her eyes crinkled.

"Oh, don't get me started! I was scrolling online while on the phone with Mom and I've already picked out what crib I want!"

"Aww! How do you feel though? Like do you have morning sickness or something?"

Selphie shook her head. "I get queasy every now and again but it usually lasts a few minutes. Haven't actually puked yet. And it's so weird…" She grimaced and shifted in her seat. "I can _feel_ stuff moving around in there."

Rinoa gasped. "The baby?" she squealed.

"No…like my organs. It's weird. Like, I feel them starting to shift _up_ to make room. And I feel this pulling feeling that I'm assuming is my uterus stretching. I don't know. I have another check up in about two weeks. Because of the car accident they want to keep an eye on me." She took out her phone and showed Rinoa an app. "Look, I downloaded this app on my phone and it shows what the baby looks like."

Rinoa tried not to make a face. She had to remind herself that humans did not look like humans early on in the womb. "It's um…cute?" she managed out.

Selphie giggled. "You don't have to lie to kick it," she said. "It looks like a snake! Or an alien. It doesn't even have fingers and toes yet. But the doctor said that the heartbeat was strong though I can't remember the exact number he gave me."

"What do you think it is?"

"No idea. My mom slipped out "she" when she was talking about it to my dad and according to him she did the same exact thing with me before I was born." She looked down and poked at her belly. "Somehow though…I'm leaning towards boy. No idea why."

Rinoa clapped her hands. "Oooooh it's that _maternal instinct!_"

Selphie made a high pitched squeal that slowly vibrated into a snorting giggle. "I don't know what you can call it but for some reason I feel like there's a little boy in here." She looked downward and poked at her stomach. "I haven't noticed any weight gain but I _feel_ like I look different."

"You don't look any different, believe me. When do you get to find out what you're having?"

"Well, when I'm about fourteen weeks they can do another ultrasound and if baby is cooperating they can see the genitals. Or I can do a genetic screening and find out as early as nine or ten weeks." Selphie shrugged and let out a sigh. "So. Now I ask what I've been dying to ask." She gave Rinoa a look. "Irvine told me that it was Squall who told him that I was pregnant."

Rinoa kept her face still. "Oh?"

"How did he know?"

"I didn't tell him if that's what you want to know."

Selphie shook her head. "I knew you wouldn't rat me out," she said. "My dumbass left the test in plain view huh?"

"Kinda." Rinoa groaned and ran her fingers through her hair. "Squall thought it was mine."

Selphie paled. "Oh no."

"Yeah," Rinoa said with a soft grimace. "And well…he said that he would be there and support me fully if I wanted to go through with it."

For a moment Selphie didn't say anything, only stared with a slack jaw. Rinoa blinked and sat in the uncomfortable silence. When she thought that Selphie would soon start drooling because she had yet to close her mouth, Rinoa started laughing. "Good god woman! Say something!"

"Uh…ok. _Squall_ said that?"

Rinoa nodded. "Yeah. Why?"

"Well, I mean, it's nothing against Squall but I just never really saw him as that fatherly type." She frowned and held her palm upward as she tried to sort her thoughts. "I mean, aside from one of the band members getting too drunk or something. But I've just never seen him as…you know, a _daddy._ To like, a baby. A little itty bitty crawly drooly poop and barf machine. Just the big grown up barf machines."

Rinoa chuckled. "I won't lie, I personally can't see _anyone _like that. Although I also don't have kids on the brain. It's not something in my cards for now."

"Yeah, I didn't think so either," Selphie said with a laugh, looking down and patting her belly.

* * *

**Sunday August 5****th**

In the morning, Caraway picked up Rinoa to take her to breakfast. He didn't give her much warning, simply called her and said that he would be at her door at nine in the morning and that she had better be ready to eat.

"How are you feeling?" he asked after she buckled herself into the car.

"I'm good. Bruises and stiffness are all gone."

"I'm sorry I wasn't here for you."

Rinoa made a soft groan and reached over the center console to gently touch her father's arm. "Don't be, please. Everyone's ok."

He took her to the Phoenix Diner because she told him she was craving their omelettes.

"You're not pregnant, are you?" he asked, eyeing her sternly after hearing the word 'craving.'

"What? No. That's—"

"Selphie. I figured as much."

Rinoa arched her brow at her father as he pulled into a parking spot. "How did you even…? The hospital couldn't get a hold of you because you were in a dead zone at the retreat. They told me they didn't leave a message."

"Squall called me."

Rinoa sighed. Of course he did. Why wouldn't he?

He led her into the restaurant and gave a thankful salute to the hostess who sat them immediately. "He said he got my number from your phone while you were sleeping. Let me know that you were alright. When I asked about Selphie he said that Selphie was fine but more concerned about the baby inside her."

Their server arrived with a fresh pot of coffee and a dazzling smile. "Coffee?" he asked the pair.

Caraway nodded, keeping his gaze averted while the server came to set down the steaming pot. "When Squall told me what happened…I thought my heart stopped." Before Rinoa could say anything, he cleared his throat and moved away from her to tug open his suitcase that he had brought in. "Speaking of which, I did some digging while on the retreat. I retrieved some information for you."

Understanding his need to change the subject, Rinoa followed along. "About Squall's dad? That was fast. I only just asked you about it."

"Yes, well, I wasn't allowed to do much of the physical activities," Caraway said with a grunt. "So I was cooped up inside for the most part." He pulled out a folder and handed it to her. "November of the previous year that Squall was born, three military factions were en route through Winhill. Only one squad stayed in town. The squad consisted of four soldiers." He placed three separate sheets displaying each individual men and their names.

"You said there were four," Rinoa murmured.

"The fourth was a woman."

"Ah."

"Now, this man…" He pointed to the sheet in the middle. "He was born and raised in Winhill. Had a family. Wife and two kids. So I think it's safe to say that he was staying with them during any free time." He flipped the sheet over and focused on the two remaining.

Rinoa looked back and forth between the two men on the papers. The photographs were old, most likely taken during the time served. These men were probably in their fifties now. She picked up one photograph. Zacariah Klaus, aged 27 (at the time), from Centra. His eyes were a stunning green and his hair was dark, possibly black, cropped close in utilitarian fashion. Rinoa frowned. "Squall got his looks from his mother," she said. With a sigh she picked up the other photograph. Laguna Loire, aged 29 (at the time), from Deling.

Rinoa swallowed. The man looking up at her was displaying a coy, subtle half smirk that she had certainly seen before. His eyes weren't as steely blue as Squall's. Instead there were more flecks of gray than blue. But there, hanging down his back, was long black hair. "Long black hair," she whispered. "Ellone, Squall's sister, said that all she could remember about Squall's father was that he had long black hair." She looked up at Caraway. "Where is he now?"

"Retired. Lives in Tear's Point with his wife."

"Did he have any kids?"

Caraway shook his head. "None."

Rinoa bit down on her bottom lip as she stared at the photograph. "Wow. Thank you." She handed the photograph back to Caraway and watched as she slipped the pictures back into the folder.

"What are you going to do with this information?" he asked, tucking the folder into his suitcase and sliding it beneath the table.

Rinoa remained still. She wasn't sure what she was going to do with this information. She hadn't planned on receiving _any _information at all. She hadn't even yet brought up the subject of it to Squall. But now, now she had the name of the man who was most likely Squall's father and even knew the general vicinity in which he lived. Tear's Point was just over a five hour drive away, could easily be made in a day. That made her almost laugh at herself. What was she going to do? Look him up, find his address, and drive up to go see him? Bang on his door and say, 'Hey guess what you've got a son from your one-week stand with Raine Leonhart, want to meet him even though he told me that he really had no intention of ever finding you?'

"Rinoa?" Caraway asked, breaking her from her thoughts. "Rinoa, sweetheart, what are you going to do with this information?"

She sighed and crossed her arms over the table. Gently she shook her head and reached over to pour herself a large cup of coffee. "Nothing," she finally said. She ripped open a couple of packets of sugar and dumped them into her cup. As she stirred the contents she could feel her father's piercing and scrutinizing gaze upon her. "Nothing," she said again quietly. "Maybe one day I will mention to Squall that I have resources he could use to find his father…but I'm not going to tell him anything else."

Caraway slowly nodded. "Whatever you feel is best," he told her. "You know him better than I do, so I trust your judgement."

* * *

Squall inhaled deeply on the cigarette, his eyes narrowed as he stared off towards the setting sun that painted the sky with streaks of pinks and orange. He couldn't believe it was already close to eight at night. His arms throbbed from the passionate thrashing along his drums. The backs of his calves screamed from their constant and jarring movements.

It felt great. His blood was practically singing, coursing through his veins with the ultimate high. He finished his cigarette and stubbed it out along the brick wall before tossing it into the garbage.

"How's Selphie doing?" he heard Quistis ask when he walked back in.

Irvine tucked his phone back into his knapsack. "Not much nausea today," he said. "That's really all she's said." He looked up at Squall. "How's Rinoa?"

"Busy," he answered. "She's got a wedding to shoot this coming Saturday and even though she finished the project she was already working on, her coworkers pulled her in to help with a different project to prepare."

"Ooh, a wedding?" Quistis muttered with a scowl. "That's a big step up from band photoshoots and boudoir. She nervous?"

Squall nodded. "She didn't say so but I could hear it in her voice. She was talking really fast and stumbling her words."

A door opening caught their attention and all three turned to watch Zell leaving the recording booth with Kiros. Zell chuckled and lifted his fists into the air in triumph. "Alright!" he shouted. "We're on a roll!" He did a quick boxer's jig and punched a few jabs. "We'll be done in no time!"

Kiros chuckled and gave Zell a hearty pat on the back. "Well…your individual recordings will be done in no time. The editing will take a bit longer." He glanced at the large modern clock on the wall and cleared his throat. "Why don't you guys take a break? Get some dinner or something. Studio is yours all night if you want."

"You sure? We wouldn't want to impose on your staff," Quistis said, nodding at the two men exiting the recording room.

"Don't worry about it," one of them said. "We've got coffee and energy drinks on tap. We can go as long as you need us to."

Quistis made an approving grunt within her throat and sent him a sultry grin. "Really, well I'll be sure to hold you to that."

The man's cheeks reddened a bit but he managed to respond with his own grin and winked at her.

"Great, she's hungry and horny," Irvine muttered, reaching over to grip her bicep. "Come on, my Queen." He jerked his head to the rest of the bandmates. "Let's go to that place down the street, it's got deep fat fried chicken wings and then we'll get you a chocolate cake afterwards."

Quistis' eyes lit up. "How did you know?" she asked breathlessly, instantly wrapping arms around his waist and squeezing.

"Oh please," Zell chuckled. "We've all been with you for how long? He probably knows your menstrual cycle better than Selphie's. Well…I mean, when she had one." He gave Irvine an impish grin before hurrying out the door.

Irvine clenched his jaw and looked over at Squall.

He shrugged. "At least he's not the one having a kid."


End file.
